UC-NRLF 


SB 


HISTORY  I 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


EPOCHS  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY 

EDITED   BY 

REV.  G.  W.  COX.  M.A.  AND  CHARLES  SANKEY,  M.  A. 


The  GRACCHI,  MARIUS,  and  SULLA 


A.   H.  BEESLY 


EPOCHS   OF  ANCIENT    HISTORY. 

Edited  by  Rev.  G.  W.  Cox  and  CHARLES  SANKKY,  M.  A. 
Eleven  volumes,  i6mo,  with  41  Maps  and  Plans.  Price  per 
vol.,  $1.00.  The  set,  Roxburgh  style,  gilt  top,  in  box,  $11.00, 

TROY — ITS   LEGEND,    HISTORY,  AND  LITERATURE.     By  S.  G.  W. 

Benjamin. 

THE  GREEKS  AND  THE  PERSIANS.     By  G.  W.  Cox. 
THE  ATHENIAN  EMPIRE.     By  G.  W.  Cox. 
THE  SPARTAN  AND  THEBAN  SUPREMACIES.     By  Charles  Sankey. 
THE  MACEDONIAN  EMPIRE.     By  A.  M.  Curteis. 
EARLY  ROME.     By  W-  Ihne. 
ROME  AND  CARTHAGE.     By  R.  Bosworth  Smkh. 
THE  GRACCHI,  MARIUS,  AND  SULLA.    By  A.  H.  Beesley. 
THE  ROMAN  TRIUMVIRATES.     By  Charles  Merivale. 
THE  EARLY  EMPIRE.    By  W.  Wolfe  Capes. 
THE  AQE  OF  THE  ANTOMNES.     By  W.  Wolfe  Capes. 

EPOCHS   OF   MODERN    HISTORY. 

Edited  by  EDWARD  E.  MORRIS.  Eighteen  volumes,  i6mo, 
with  77  Maps,  Plans,  and  fables.  Price  per  vol.,  $1.00. 
The  set,  Roxburgh  style,  gilt  top,  in  box,  $18.00. 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.    By  R.  W.  Church. 

THE  NORMANS  IN  EUROPE.    By  A.  H.  Johnson. 

THE  CRUSADES.    By  G.  W.  Cox. 

THE  EARLY  PLANTAGENETS.     By  Wm.  Stubbs. 

EDWARD  III.     By  W.  Warburton. 

THE  HOUSES  OF  LANCASTER  AND  YORK.     By  James  Gairdner. 

THE  ERA  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  REVOLUTION.    By  Frederic  Seebohm. 

THE  EARLY  TUDORS.    By  C.  E.  Moberty. 

THE  AGE  OF  ELI/ABETH.    By  M.  Creighton. 

THE  THIRTY  YEARS  WAR,  1618-1648.     By  S.  R.  Gardiner. 

THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION.     By  S.  R.  Gardiner. 

THE  FALL  OF  THE  STUARTS.    By  Edward  Hale. 

THE  ENGLISH  RESTORATION  AND  Louis  XIV.    By  Osmond  Airy. 

THE  AGE  OF  ANNE.     By  Edward  E.  Morris. 

THE  EARLY  HANOVERIANS.    Bv  Edward  E.  Morris. 

FREDERICK  THE  GREAT.    By  F.  W.  Longman. 

THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  AND  FIRST  EMPIRE.      By  W. 
Morns.    Appendix  by  Andrew  D.  White. 

Twi  FPOCH  OF  REFORM.  ISSO-ISBQ.    By  Justin  Macarthy- 


EPOCHS  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY 


THE  GRACCHI, 
MARIUS,  AND  SULLA 


BY 


A.    H.    BEESLY 


WITH.MAPS 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
igii 


. 


PREFACE. 


IT  would  be  scarcely  possible  for  anyone  writing 
on  the  period  embraced  in  this  volume,  to  perform 
his  task  adequately  without  making  himself  familiar 
with  Mr.  Long's  "History  of  the  Decline  of  the 
Roman  Republic"  and  Mommsen's  "History  of 
Rome."  To  do  over  again  (as  though  the  work  had 
never  been  attempted)  what  has  been  done  once  for 
all  accurately  and  well,  would  be  mere  prudery  of 
punctiliousness.  But  while  I  acknowledge  my  debt 
of  gratitude  to  both  these  eminent  historians,  I  must 
add  that  for  the  whole  period  I  have  carefully  ex- 
amined the  original  authorities,  often  coming  to 
conclusions  widely  differing  from  those  of  Mr.  Long. 
And  I  venture  to  hope  that  from  the  advantage  I  had 
in  being  able  to  compare  the  works  of  two  writers,  one 
of  whom  has  well-nigh  exhausted  the  theories  as  the 
other  has  the  facts  of  the  subject,  I  have  succeeded 
in  giving  a  more  consistent  and  faithful  account  of 
the  leaders  and  legislation  of  the  revolutionary  era 
than  has  hitherto  been  written.  Certainly  there 
could  be  no  more  instructive  commentary  on  either 
history  than  the  study  of  the  other,  for  each  supple- 

221940 


vi  Preface. 

ments  the  other  and  emphasizes  its  defects.  If 
Mommsen  at  times  pushes  conjecture  to  the  verge 
of  invention,  as  in  his  account  of  the  junction  of 
the  Helvetii  and  Cimbri,  Mr.  Long,  in  his  dogged 
determination  never  to  swerve  from  facts  to  infer- 
ence, falls  into  the  opposite  extreme,  resorting  to 
somewhat  Cyclopean  architecture  in  his  detestation 
of  stucco.  But  my  admiration  for  his  history  is  but 
slightly  qualified  by  such  considerations,  and  to  any 
student  who  may  be  stimulated  by  the  volumes  of 
this  series  to  acquire  what  would  virtually  amount  to 
an  acquaintance  first-hand  with  the  narratives  of 
ancient  writers,  I  would  say  "  Read  Mr.  Long's 
history."  To  do  so  is  to  learn  not  only  knowledge 
but  a  lesson  in  historical  study  generally.  For  the 
writings  of  a  man  with  whom  style  is  not  the  first 
object  are  as  refreshing  as  his  scorn  for  romancing 
history  is  wholesome,  and  the  grave  irony  with  which 
he  records  its  slips  amusing. 

A.  H.  B. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ANTECEDENTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

PAGE 

Previous  history  of  the  Roman  orders — The  Ager  Publicus — 
Previous  attempts  at  agrarian  legislation — Roman  slavery 
— The  first  Slave  War — The  Nobiles,  Optimates,  Popu- 
lares,  Equites — Classification  of  the  component  parts  of 
the  Roman  State — State  of  the  transmarine  provinces  .  X 


CHAPTER  II. 
TIBERIUS  GRACCHUS. 

Scipio  ^milianus — Tribunate  of  Tiberius  Gracchus— His 
agrarian  proposals — Wisdom  of  them — Grievances  of  the 
possessors  —  Octavius  thwarts  <5racchus  —  Conduct  of 
Gracchus  defended  — His  other  intended  reforms — He 
stands  again  for  the  tribunate^  His  motives-^His  murder  23 

CHAPTER  III. 

CAIUS   GRACCHUS. 

Blossius  spared — The  law  of  T.  Gracchus  carried  out — Expla- 
nation of  Italian  opposition  to  it — Attitude  of  Scipio 
^Emilianus — His  murder — Quaestorship  of  Caius  Grac- 
chus— The  Alien  Act  of  Pennus— Flaccus  proposes  to 

vii 


viii  Contents. 


give  the  Socii  the  franchise — Revolt  and  extirpation  of 
Fregellse — Tribunate  of  Caius  Gracchus — Compared  to 
Tiberius — His  aims — His  Corn  Law  defended — His  Lex 
Judiciaria — His  law  concerning  the  taxation  of  Asia — 
His  conciliation  of  the  equites — His  colonies — He  pro- 
poses to  give  the  franchise  to  the  Italians — Other  pro- 
jects— Machinations  of  the  nobles  against  him — M.  Livius 
Drusus  outbids  him — Stands  again  for  the  tribunate,  but 
is  rejected — His  murder — Some  of  his  laws  remain  in 
force — The  Maria  Lex — Reactionary  legislation  of  the 
Senate — The  Lex  Thoria — All  offices  confined  to  a  close 
circle  .  37 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  JUGURTHINE  WAR. 

Legacy  of  Attalus — Aristonicus  usurps  his  kingdom — Settle- 
ment of  Asia — Jugurtha  murders  Hiempsal  and  attacks 
Adherbal  —His  intrigues  at  Rome  and  the  infamy  of  M. 
yEmilius  Scaurus  and  the  other  Roman  nobles — Three 
commissions  bribed  by  Jugurtha — Adherbal  murdered — 
Rome  declares  war  and  Jugurtha  bribes  the  Roman 
generals,  Bestia  and  Scaurus — Memmius  denounces  them 
at  Rome — Jugurtha  summoned  to  Rome,  where  he  mur- 
ders Massiva — He  defeats  Aulus  Albinus — Metellus  sent 
against  him — Jugurtha  defeated  on  the  Muthul — Keeps 
up  a  guerilla  warfare — Marius  stands  for  the  consulship, 
and  succeeds  Metellus — Bocchus  betrays  Jugurtha  to 
Sulla— Settlement  of  Numidia  •  -65 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CIMBRI   AND  TEUTONES. 

Recommencement  of  the  Social  struggle  at  Rome — Marius  the 
popular  hero — Incessant  frontier-warfare  of  the  Romans 
— The  Cimbri  defeat  Carbo  and  Silanus — Csepio  and 


Contents.  ix 

PACK 

"The  Gold  of  Tolosa" — The  Cimbri  defeat  Scaurus  and 
Coepio — Marius  elected  consul — The  Cimbri  march  to- 
wards Spain — Their  nationality — Their  plan  of  opera- 
tions— Plan  of  Marius — Battle  of  Aquae  Sextiae — Battle  of 
Vercellse 81 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    ROMAN    ARMY. 

Second  Slave  War — Aquillius  ends  it — Changes  in  the  Roman 
army — Uniform  equipment  of  the  legionary — Mariani 
muli — The  cohort  the  tactical  unit — The  officers — Num- 
bers of  the  legion — The  pay — The  praetorian  cohort — 
Dislike  to  service — The  army  becomes  professional  .  95 

CHAPTER  VII. 

SATURNINUS   AND   DRUSUS. 

Saturninus  takes  up  the  Gracchan  policy,  in  league  with 
Glaucia  and  Marius — The  Lex  Servilia  meant  to  relieve 
the  provincials,  conciliate  the  equites,  and  throw  open 
the  judicia  to  all  citizens — Agrarian  law  of  Saturninus — 
His  laws  about  grain  and  treason — Murder  of  Memmius, 
Glaucia's  rival — Saturninus  is  attacked  and  deserted  by 
Marius — The  Lex  Licinia  Minucia  heralds  the  Social 
War — Drusus  attempts  reform — Obliged  to  tread  in  the 
steps  of  the  Gracchi — His  proposals  with  regard  to  the 
Italians,  the  coinage,  corn,  colonies  and  the  equites — 
Opposed  by  Philippus  and  murdered  .  .  .  IOJ 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE     SOCI  AL     WAR. 

Interests  of  Italian  capitalists  and  small  farmers  opposed — 
The  Social  War  breaks  out  at  Asculum — The  insurgents 
choose  Corfinium  as  their  capital — In  the  first  year  they 


Contents. 

PAGB 

gain  everywhere — Then  the  Lex  Julia  is  passed  and  in 
the  second  year  they  lose  everywhere — The  star  of  Sulla 
rises,  that  of  Marius  declines — The  Lex  Plautia  Papiria — 
First  year  of  the  war — The  confederates  defeat  Perperna, 
Crassus,  Caesar,  Lupus,  Caepio,  and  take  town  after  town 
— The  Umbrians  and  Etruscans  Revolt — Second  year— 
Pompeius  triumphs  in  the  north,  Cosconius  in  the  south- 
east, Sulla  in  the  south-west — Revolution  at  Rome — The 
confederates  courted  by  both  parties — The  rebellion 
smoulders  on  till  finally  quenched  by  Sulla  after  the 
Mithridatic  War na 


CHAPTER  IX. 
SULPICIUS. 

Financial  crisis  at  Rome — Sulpicius  Rufus  attempts  to  reform 
the  government,  and  complete  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
Italians — His  laws  forcibly  carried  by  the  aid  of  Marius — 
Sulla  driven  from  Rome  flies  to  the  army  at  Nola,  and 
marches  at  their  head  against  Marius — Sulpicius  slain — 
Marius  outlawed — Sulla  leaves  Italy  after  reorganizing 
the  Senate  and  the  comitia 128 


CHAPTER  X. 
MARIUS  AND  CINNA. 

Flight  of  Marius— His  romantic  adventures  at  Circeii,  Min- 
turnse,  Carthage — Cinha  takes  up  the  Italian  cause— 
Driven  from  Rome  by  Octavius,  he  flies  to  the  army  in 
Campania  and  marches  on  Rome — Marius  lands  in  Etru 
ria — Octavius  summons  Pompeius  from  Etruria  and  their 
armies  surround  the  city — Marius  and  Cinna  enter  Rome 
— The  proscriptions— Seventh  consulship  and  death  of 
Marius — Cinna  supreme  .  •  .  .  *  137 


Contents.  xi 

PAG* 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  FIRST   MITHRIDATIC    WAR. 

F1  In  Spain — Gyrene  bequeathed  to  Rome — Previous 
history  of  Mithridates — His  submission  to  Aquillius — 
Aquillius  forces  on  a  war — He  is  defeated  and  killed  by 
Mithridates— Massacre  of  Romans  in  Asia — Mithridates 
repulsed  at  Rhodes 148 

CHAPTER  XII. 

SULLA   IN   GREECE  AND  ASIA. 

Aristion  induces  Athens  to  revolt — Sulla  lands  in  Epirus,  and 
besieges  Athens  and  the  Piraeus — His  difficulties — He 
takes  Athens  and  the  Piraeus,  and  defeats  Archelaus  at 
Chaeroneia  and  Orchomenus— Terms  offered  to  Mithri- 
dates— Tyranny  of  the  latter — Flaccus  comes  to  Asia  and 
is  mardeied  by  Fimbria,  who  is  soon  afterwards  put  to 
death  by  Sulla 159 

CHAPTER    XITI. 

SULLA   IN   ITALY. 

Sulla  lands  at  Brundisium  and  is  joined  by  numerous  ad- 
herents— Battle  of  Mount  Tifata — Sertorius  goes  to  Spain 
• — Sulla  in  83  is  master  of  Picenum,  Apulia,  and  Campania 
— Battle  of  Sacriportus — Sulla  blockades  young  Marius 
in  Praeneste— Indecisive  war  in  Picenum  between  Carbo 
and  Metellus — Repeated  attempts  to  relieve  Praeneste — 
Carbo  flies  to  Africa— His  lieutenants  threaten  Rome — 
Sulla  comes  to  the  rescue — Desperate  attempt  to  take  the 
city  by  Pontius — Battle  of  the  Colline  Gate  Sulla's 
danger — Death  of  Carbo,  of  Domitius  Ahenobarbus — 
Exploits  of  Pompeius  in  Sicily  and  Africa — His  vanity— 
Murena  provokes  the  second  Mithridatic  War — Sertorius 
in  Spain — His  successes  and  ascendency  over  the  natives  173 


xii  Contents. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

PERSONAL   RULE    AND   DEATH   OF  SULLA. 

The  Sullan  proscriptions — Sulla  and  Caesar — The  Cornelii — 
Sulla's  horrible  character — His  death  and  splendid  ob- 
sequies   191 

CHAPTER  XV. 
SULLA'S  REACTIONARY  MEASURES. 

The  Leges  Cornelise — Sulla  remodels  the  Senate,  the  quaestor- 
ship,  the  censorship,  the  tribunate,  the  comitia,  the  con- 
sulship, the  praetorship,  the  augurate  and  pontificate,  the 
judicia — Minor  laws  attributed  to  him — Effects  ol  his 
legislation  the  best  justification  of  the  Gracchi  .  <2Oo 

LIST  OF  PHRASES -          «i3 

INDEX     ..•••••••»•  215 


MAPS. 


MARCH  OF  SULLA  AND  ARCHELADS  BEFORE 

NEIA        .  164 

BATTLE  OF  CH^RONEIA      ......         166 


THE 

GRACCHI,  MARIUS,  AND  SULLA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ANTECEDENTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

DURING  the  last  half  of  the  second  century  before 
Christ  Rome  was  undisputed  mistress  of  the  civilized 
world.  A  brilliant  period  of  foreign  conquest  had  suc- 
ceeded the  300  years  in  which  she  had  overcome  her 
neighbours  and  made  herself  supreme  in  Italy.  In  146 
B.  c.  she  had  given  the  death  blow  to  her  greatest  rival, 
Carthage,  and  had  annexed  Greece.  In  140  treachery 
had  rid  her  of  Viriathus,  the  stubborn  guerilla  who 
defied  her  generals  and  defeated  her  armies  in  Spain. 
In  133  the  terrible  fate  of  Numantia,  and  in  132  the 
merciless  suppression  of  the  Sicilian  slave-revolt,  warned 
all  foes- of  the  Republic  that  the  sword,  which  the  incom- 
petence of  many  generals  had  made  seem  duller  than  of 
old,  was  still  keen  to  smite ;  an-d  except  where  some 
slave-bands  were  in  desperate  rebellion,  and  in  Perga- 
mus,  where  a  pretender  disputed  with  Rome  the  legacy 
of  Attalus,  every  land  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean was  subject  to  or  at  the  mercy  of  a  town  not  half  as 
large  as  the  London  of  to-day.  Almost  exactly  a  century 
B 


2/\  :  ;    ;  £)rf' Crracchi,  Marias,  and  Sulla.         CH.  i. 

afterwards   the  Government  under  which  this  gigantic 
empire  had  been  consolidated  was  no  more. 

Foreign  wars  will  have  but  secondary  importance  in 

the   following   pages.      The    interest   of   the    narrative 

centres    mainly    in    home     politics  ;     and 

wiifnlfbe7        though  the  world  did  not  cease  to  echo  to 

oneofmili-        fae  tramp  of  conquering  legions,  and  the 

tary  events.  • 

victorious  soldier  became  a  more  and  more 
important  factor  in  the  State,  still  military  matters  no 
longer,  as  in  the  Samnite  and  Punic  wars,  absorb  the  at- 
tention, dwarfed  as  they  are  by  the  great  social  struggle 
of  which  the  metropolis  was  the  arena.  In  treating  of 
the  first  half  of  those  hundred  years  of  revolution,  which 

began  with  the  tribunate  of  Tiberius  Grac- 

In  order  to  . 

understand  chus  and  ended  with  the  battle  of  Actium, 

the  Gracchi  it  is  mainly  the  fall  of  the  Republican  and 

sHi-5  "(Tun-  tne  foreshadowing  of  the  Imperial  system 

demand  the  of  government  which  have  to  be  described. 

history  of  •  «•«!« 

the  orders  at       But,   in   order    to   understand   rightly   the 
events   of  those  fifty   years,  some  survey, 
however  brief,  of  the   previous  history  of  the  Roman 
orders  is  indispensable. 

When  the  mists  of  legend  clear  away  we  see  a  com- 
munity which,  if  we  do  not  take  slaves  into  account, 
consisted  of  two  parts — the  governing  boc  y, 
e  patres.        OY  patres,  to  whom  alone  the  term  Populus 
Romanus  strictly  applied,  and  who  constituted  the  Ro- 
man State,  and  the  governed  class,  or  clientes,  who  were 
outside  its  pale.     The  word  patrician,  more  familiar  to 
our  ear  than  the  substantive  from  which  it  is  formed, 
came  to  imply  much  more  than  its  original  meaning.    In 
its  simplest  and  earliest  sense  it  was  applied  to  a  man 
who  was  sprung  from  a  Roman  marriage, 

The  clients. 

who  stood  towards  nis  client  on  much  the 


CH.  i.  Antecedents  of  the  Revolution.  3 

same  footing  which,  in  the  mildest  form  of  slavery,  a 
master  occupies  towards  his  slave.  As  the  patronus 
was  to  the  libertus,  when  it  became  customary  to  liberate 
slaves,  so  in  some  measure  were  the  Fathers  to  their 
retainers,  the  Clients.  That  the  community  was  origi- 
nally divided  into  these  two  sections  is  known.  What 
is  not  known  is  how,  besides  this  primary  division  of 
patres  and  clientes,  there  arose  a  second  political  class 
in  the  State,  namely  the  plebs.  The  client 
as  client  had  no  political  existence.  But  as  ^he  . 

plebeians. 

a  plebeian  he  had.  Whether  the  plebs  was 
formed  of  clients  who  had  been  released  from  their 
clientship,  just  as  slaves  might  be  manumitted;  or  of 
foreigners,  as  soldiers,  traders,  or  artisans  were  admitted 
into  the  community;  or  partly  of  foreigners  and  partly 
of  clients,  the  latter  being  equalized  by  the  patres  with 
the  former  in  self-defence;  and  whether  as  a  name  it 
dated  from  or  was  antecedent  to  the  so-called  Tullian 
organization  is  uncertain.  But  we  know  that  in  one  way 
or  other  a  second  political  division  in  the  State  arose, 
and  that  the  constitution,  of  which  Servius  Tullius  was 
the  reputed  author,  made  every  freeman  in  Rome  a 
citizen  by  giving  him  a  vote  in  the  Comitia  Centuriata. 
Yet  though  the  plebeian  was  a  citizen,  and  as  such  ac- 
quired "  commercium,"  or  the  right  to  hold  and  devise 
property,  it  was  only  after  a  prolonged  struggle  that  he 
achieved  political  equality  with  the  patres. 

Gradual 

Step  by  step  he  wrung  from  them  the  rights         acquisition 
of  intermarriage    and   of  filling   offices    of         pfebsof 
state;  and  the  great  engine  by  which  this         political 

J  equahty 

was  brought   about  was  the  tribunate,  the         w'th  'he 
historical  importance  of  which  dates  from, 
even  though  as  a  plebeian  magistracy  it  may  have  ex- 
isted before,  the  first  secession  of  the  plebs  in  404  B.  c. 


4  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.         CH.  I. 

The  tribunate  stood  towards  the  freedom  of 

Character  ,  .  .  f      . 

of  the  the    Roman    people   in   something   of   the 

same  relation  which  the  press  of  our  time 
occupies  towards  modern  liberty :  for  its  existence  im- 
plied free  criticism  of  the  executive,  and  out  of  free 
speech  grew  free  action.  Side  by  side  with  those  exter- 
nal events  which  made  Rome  mistress,  first  of  her 
neighbours,  then  of  Italy,  and  lastly  of  the  world,  there 
went  on  a  succession  of  internal  changes,  which  first 
transformed  a  pure  oligarchy  into  a  pluto- 

'1  he  Roman  . .  -  .  .  , . 

government       cracy,  and  secondly  overthrew  this  moai- 
fromf^nd       ned    form    of   oligarchy,    and    substituted 
sTTutocroc        Csesarism.       With     the     earlier     of    these 
changes  we  are  concerned  here  but  little. 
The  political  revolution  was  over  when  the  social  revo  • 
lution  which  we  have  to  record  began.    J3ut  the  roots  of 
the  social  revolution  were  of  deep  growth,  and  were  in 
fact  sometimes  identical  with  those  of  the  political  revo- 
lution.    Englishmen  can  understand  such 

Parallel 

between  an  intermixture  the  more  readily  from  the 

Roman  and  ,  .  ,  ,  .    .       , 

English  analogies,  more   or  less  close,  which  their 

history.  own  njstory  supplies.     They  have   had   a 

monarchy.  They  have  been  ruled  by  an  oligarchy, 
which  has  first  confronted  and  then  coalesced  with  the 
moneyed  class,  and  the  united  orders  have  been  forced 
to  yield  theoretical  equality  to  almost  the  entire  nation, 
while  still  retaining  real  authority  in  their  own  hands. 
They  have  seen  a  middle  class  coquetting  with  a  lower 
class  in  order  to  force  an  upper  class  to  share  with  it  its 
privileges,  and  an  upper  class  resorting  in  its  turn  to  the 
same  alliance;  and  they  may  have  noted  something 
more  than  a  superficial  resemblance  between  the  tactics 
of  the  patres  and  nobiles  of  Rome  and  our  own  mag- 
nates of  birth  and  commerce.  Even  now  they  are  wit- 


CH.  i.  Antecedents  of  the  Revolution.  5 

nessing  the  displacement  of  political  by  social  questions, 
and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  the  successful  solution  of  prob- 
lems which  in  the  earlier  stages  of  society  have  defied 
the  efforts  of  every  statesman.  Yet  they  know  that, 
underlying  all  the  political  struggles  of  their  history, 
questions  connected  with  the  rights  and  interests  of  rich 
and  poor,  capitalist  and  toiler,  land-owner  and  land- 
cultivator,  have  always  been  silently  and  sometimes 
violently  agitated.  Political  emancipation  has  enabled 
social  discontent  to  organize  itself  and  find  permanent 
utterance,  and  we  are  to-day  facing  some  of  the  de- 
mands to  satisfy  which  the  Gracchi  sacrificed  their  lives 
more  than  2,000  years  ago.  With  us  indeed 

/  The  struggle 

the  wages  question  is  of  more  prominence      between  the 
than  the  land  question,  because  we  are  a      chiefly 
manufacturing  nation ;  but  the  principles  at      asranan- 
stake  are  much  the   same.     At  Rome   social  agitation 
was   generally  agrarian,  and  the  first  thing  necessary 
towards  understanding  the   Gracchan   revolution   is  to 
gain  a  clear  conception  of  the  history  of  the  public 
land. 

The  ground  round  a  town  like  Rome  was  originally 
cultivated  by  the  inhabitants,  some  of  whom,  as  more 
food  and  clothing  were  required,  would  Orj  .n  ^ 

settle  on  the  soil.     From  them  the  ranks  of          the  Ager 

,  «iiiiii  Publicus. 

the  army  were  recruited ;  and,  thus  doubly 
oppressed  by  military  service  and  by  the  land  tax,  which 
had  to  be  paid  in  coin,  the  small  husbandman  was 
forced  to  borrow  from  some  richer  man  in  the  town. 
Hence  arose  usury,  and  a  class  of  debtors  ;  and  the  sum 
of  debt  must  have  been  increased  as  well  as  the  number 
of  the  debtors  by  the  very  means  adopted  to  relieve  it. 
When  Rome  conquered  a  town  she  confiscated  a  por- 
tion of  its  territory,  and  disposed  of  it  in  one  of  foui 


6  The  Gracchi,  Marfus,  and  Sulla.         CH.  I. 

ways.     i.  After  expelling  the  owners,  she 

Fourfold 

way  of  deal-  sent  some  of  her  own  citizens  to  settle  upon 
cohered  it.  They  did  not  cease  to  be  Romans,  and, 
territory.  being  in  historical  times  taken  almost  ex- 

clusively from   the   plebs,   must   often    have   been   but 
poorly  furnished  with  the  capital  necessary 
for  cultivating  the  ground.     2.  She  sold  it ; 
and,  as  with  us,  when  a  field  is  sold,  a  plan  is  made  of 
its  dimensions  and  boundaries,  so  plans  of 
the  land  thus  sold  were  made  on  tablets  of 
bronze,  and  kept  by  the  State.     3.  She  allowed  private 
persons    to    " occupy"    it   on   payment    of 
)ccupation.       „  vectigalf»i    or  a  portjOn   of  the   produce ; 

and,  though  not  surrendering  the  title  to  the  land,  per- 
mitted the  possessors  to  use  it  as  their  private  property 
for  purchase,  sale,  and  succession.  4.  A  portion  was 
kept  as  common  pasture  land  for  those  to 
whom  the  land  had  been  given  or  sold,  or 
by  whom  it  was  occupied,  and  those  who  used  it  paid 
"  scriptura,'  or  a  tax  of  so  much  per  head  on  the  beasts, 
for  whose  grazing  they  sent  in  a  return.  This  irregular 
system  was  fruitful  in  evil.  It  suited  the  patres  with 
whom  it  originated,  for  they  were  for  a  time  the  sole 
gainers  by  it.  Without  money  it  must  have  been  hope- 
less to  occupy  tracts  distant  from  Rome.  The  poor  man 
who  did  so  would  either  involve  himself  in  debt,  or  be  at 
the  mercy  of  his  richer  neighbours,  whose  flocks  would 
overrun  his  fields,  or  who  might  oust  him  altogether 
from  them  by  force,  and  even  seize  him  himself  and  en- 
roll him  as  a  slave.  The  rich  man,  on  the  other  hand, 
could  use  such  land  for  pasture,  and  leave 
™sei^rteh^lar  the  care  of  his  flocks  and  herds  to  clients 
p1:™  °[.  arid  slaves.  So  originated  those  "  latifun- 

latifundia. 

dia,"  or  large  farms,  which  greatly  contri« 


CH.  i.  Antecedents  of  the  Revolution.  7 

buted  to  the  ruin  of  Rome  and  Italy.  The  tilled  land 
grew  less,  and  with  it  dwindled  the  free  population  and 
the  recruiting  field  tor  the  army.  Gangs  of  slaves  be- 
came more  numerous,  and  were  treated  with  increased 
brutality ;  and  as  men  who  do  not  work  for  their  own 
money  are  more  profuse  in  spending  it  than  those  who 
do,  the  extravagance  of  the  Roman  possessors  helped  to 
swell  the  tide  of  luxury,  which  rose  steadily  with  foreign 
conquest,  and  to  create  in  the  capital  a  class  free  in  name 
indeed,  but  more  degraded,  if  less  miserable,  than  the 
very  slaves,  who  were  treated  like  beasts  through  Italy. 
It  is  not  certain  whether  anyone  except  a  patrician  could 
claim  ''occupation"  as  a  right;  but,  as  the  possessors 
could  in  any  case  sell  the  land  to  plebeians,  it  fell  into 
the  hands  of  rich  men,  to  whichever  class  they  belonged, 
both  at  Rome,  and  in  the  Roman  colonies,  and  the 
Municipia ;  and  as  it  was  never  really  their  property — 
"  dominium  *' — but  the  property  of  the  State,  it  was  a 
constant  source  of  envy  and  discontent  among  the  poor. 
As  long  as  fresh  assignations  of  land  and  the  planta- 
tions of  colonies  went  on,  this  discontent  could  be  kept 
within  bounds.  But  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury preceding  our  period  scarcely  any  fresh  piaints°m 
acquisitions  of  land  had  been  made  in  Italy,  pSac^* 
and,  with  no  hope  of  new  allotments  from  Land  be- 

came 

the  territory  of  their  neighbours,  the  people      louder  at 
began  to  clamour  for  the  restitution,  of  their      the  second 
own.    The  first  attempt  to  wrest  public  land      century  B-  c- 
from  possessors  had  been  made  long  before  this  by  Spu- 
rius  Cassius ;  and  he  had  paid  for  his  daring  with  his 
life.    More  than  a  century  later  the  Licinian         Previous 
law  forbade  anyone  to  hold  above  500  "  in-         agrarian 

*  legislation. 

gera *'  of  public  land,  for  which,  moreover,         Spurms 
a  tenth  of  the  arable  and  a  fifth  of  the  graz- 


8  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.          CH.I. 

ing  produce  was  to  be  paid  to  the  State.     The  framers 

of  the  law  are  said  to  have  hoped  that  possessors  of  more 

than  this  amount  would  shrink  from  making 

The  Li-  on  oath  a   false  return  of  the  land  which 

cmian  law. 

they  occupied,  and  that,  as  they  would  be 
liable  to  penalties  for  exceeding  the  prescribed  maxi- 
mum, all  land  beyond  the  maximum  would  be  sold  at  a 
nominal  price  (if  this  interpretation  of  the  /car'  okiyov  of 
Appian  may  be  hazarded)  to  the  poor.  It  is  probable 
that  they  did  not  quite  know  what  they  were  aiming  at, 
and  certain  that  they  did  not  foresee  the  effects  of  their 
measure.  In  a  confused  way  the  law  may  have  been 
meant  to  comprise  sumptuary,  political,  and  agrarian 
objects.  It  forbade  anyone  to  keep  more  than  a  hun- 
dred large  or  five  hundred  small  beasts  on  the  com- 
mon pasture-land,  and  stipulated  for  the  employment  of 
a  certain  proportion  of  free  labour.  The  free  labourers 
were  to  give  information  of  the  crops  produced,  so  that 
the  fifths  and  tenths  might  be  duly  paid  ;  and  it  may 
have  been  the  breakdown  of  such  an  impossible  institu- 
tion which  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  "  publicani." 
Nothing,  indeed,  is  more  likely  than  that  Licinius  and 
Sextius  should  have  attempted  to  remedy  by  one  measure 

the  specific  grievance  of  the  poor  plebeians, 
nat™?e°ofe  the  Political  disabilities  of  the  rich  plebe- 
the  Licinian  ians,  and  the  general  deterioration  of  public 

morals  ;  but,  though  their  motives  may 
have  been  patriotic,  such  a  measure  could  no  more  cure 
the  body  politic  than  a  man  who  has  a  broken  limb,  is 
blind,  and  in  a  consumption  can  be  made  sound  at  every 
point  by  the  heal-all  of  a  quack.  Accordingly  the  Lici- 
nian law  was  soon,  except  in  its  political  provisions,  a 
dead  letter.  Licinius  was  the  first  man  prosecuted  for 
its  violation,  and  the  economical  desire  of  the  nation  be- 


CH.  I.  Antecedents  of  the  Revolution.  9 

came   intensified.     In  232   B.  c.  Flaminius 
carried  a  law   for   the   distribution  of  land      Snian^'aw 
taken  from  the  Senones  among  the  plebs. 
Though  the  law  turned  out  no  possessors,  it  was  opposed 
by  the  Senate  and  nobles.     Nor  is  this  surprising,  for 
any  law   distributing  land  was  both  actually  and  as  a 
precedent  a  blow  to  the  interests  of  the  class  which  prac- 
tised occupation.    What  is  at  first  sight  surprising  is  that 
small  parcels  of  land,  such  as  must  have  been  assigned 
in  these  distributions,  should  have  been  so  coveted.  The 
explanation    is   probably    fourfold.      Those 
who   clamoured   for    them   were    wretched      ^tio'Sof 
enough  to  clutch  at  any  change  :  or  did  not      land  were 

, .  ,  ,  so  coveted. 

realize  to  themselves  the  dangers  and  draw- 
backs of  what  they  desired  ;  or  intended  at  once  to  sell 
their  land  to  some  richer  neighbour ;  or,  lastly,  longed 
to  keep  a  slave  or  two,  just  as  the  primary  object  of  the 
"  mean  white"  in  America  used  to  be  to  keep  his  negro. 
On  the  whole,  it  is  clear  that  legislation  previous  to  this 
period  had  not  diminished  agrarian  griev- 

....  ,         ,  .  Failure  of 

ances,  and  it  is  clear  also  why  these  gnev-  previous 
ances  were  so  sorely  felt.  The  general  legislation, 
tendency  at  Rome  and  throughout  Italy  was  towards  a 
division  of  society  into  two  classes — the  very  rich  and 
the  very  poor,  a  tendency  which  increased  so  fast  that 
not  many  years  later  it  was  said  that  out  of  some  400,000 
men  at  Rome  only  2,000  could,  in  spite  of  the  city  being 
notoriously  the  centre  to  which  the  world's  wealth  gravi- 
tated, be  called  really  rich  men.  To  any  patriot  the 
progressive  extinction  of  small  land- owners  must  have 
seemed  piteous  in  itself  and  menacing  to  the  life  of  the 
State.  On  the  other  hand,  the  poor  had  always  one 
glaring  act  of  robbery  to  cast  in  the  teeth  of  the  rich.  A 
sanguine  tribune  might  hope  permanently  to  check  a 


io  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.         CH.I. 

growing  evil  by  fresh  supplies  of  free  labour.  His  poor 
partisan  again  had  a  direct  pecuniary  interest  in  getting 
the  land.  Selfish  and  philanthropic  motives  therefore 
went  hand  in  hand,  and  in  advocating  the  distribution  of 
land  a  statesman  would  be  sure  of  enlisting  the  sympa- 
thies of  needy  Italians,  even  more  than  those  of  the 
better-provided-for  poor  of  Rome. 

Incidental  mention  has  been  made  of  the  condition  of 
the  slaves  in  Italy.     It  was  the  sight  of  the  slave-gangs 
which  partly  at  least  roused  Tiberius  Grac- 
siaver11  chus  to  action,  and  some  remarks  on   Ro- 

man slavery  follow  naturally  an  enquiry 
into  the  nature  of  the  public  land.  The  most  terrible 
characteristic  of  slavery  is  that  it  blights  not  only  the 
unhappy  slaves  themselves,  but  their  owners  and  the 
land  where  they  live.  It  is  an  absolutely  unmitigated 
evil.  As  Roman  conquests  multiplied  and  luxury  in- 
creased, enormous  fortunes  became  more  common,  and 
the  demand  for  slaves  increased  also.  Ten  thousand 
are  said  to  have  been  landed  and  sold  at  Delos  in  one 
day.  What  proportion  the  slave  population  of  Italy 
bore  to  the  free  at  the  time  of  the  Gracchi  we  cannot 
say.  It  has  been  placed  as  low  as  4  per  cent.,  but  the 
probability  is  that  it  was  far  greater.  In  trades,  mining, 
grazing,  levying  of  revenue,  and  every  field  of  specu- 
lation, slave-labour  was  universally  em- 
Slave  ployed.  If  it  is  certain  that  even  unenfran- 

labour  r      ' 

universally        chised    Italians,   however    poor,    could    be 

employed.  ,  •      ^i       T-> 

made  to  serve  in  the  Roman  army,  it  was  a 
proprietor's  direct  interest  from  that  point  of  view  to 
employ  slaves,  of  whose  services  he  could  not  be  de- 
prived. 

A  vast  impetus  had  been  given  to  the  slave-trade  at 
the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Macedonia,  about  thirty-five 


CH.  i.  Antecedents  of  the  Revolution.  1 1 

years  before  our  period.  The  great  slave-producing 
countries  were  those  bordering  on  the  Medi- 
terranean—Africa, Asia,  Spain,  &c.  An  ^e^a^e? 
organized  system  of  man-hunting  supplied  2ienir  treat" 
the  Roman  markets,  and  slave-dealers  were 
part  of  the  ordinary  retinue  of  a  Roman  army.  When 
a  batch  of  slaves  reached  its  destination  they  were  kept 
in  a  pen  till  bought.  Those  bought  for  domestic  service 
would  no  doubt  be  best  off,  and  the  cunning,  mischiev- 
ous rogue,  the  ally  of  the  young  against  the  old  master 
of  whom  we  read  in  Roman  comedy,  if  he  does  not 
come  up  to  our  ideal  of  what  a  man  should  be,  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  physically  very  wretched.  Ever 
here,  however,  we  see  how  degraded  a  thing  a  slave 
was,  and  the  frequent  threats  of  torture  prove  how  utter- 
ly he  was  at  the  mercy  of  a  cruel  master's  caprice.  We 
know,  too,  that  when  a  master  was  arraigned  on  a  crimi- 
nal charge,  the  first  thing  done  to  prove  his  guilt  was  to 
torture  his  slaves.  But  just  as  in  America  the  popular 
figure  of  the  oily,  lazy,  jocular  negro,  brimming  over 
with  grotesque  good-humour  and  screening  himself  in  the 
weakness  of  an  indulgent  master,  merely  served  to 
brighten  a  picture  of  which  the  horrible  plantation-sys- 
tem was  the  dark  background  ;  so  at  Rome  no  instances 
of  individual  indulgence  were  a  set-off  against  the 
monstrous  barbarities  which  in  the  end  brought  about 
their  own  punishment,  and  the  ruin  of  the  Republic. 
Frequent  stories  attest  the  horrors  of  Roman 

Dread  m- 

slavery  felt  by  conquered  nations.  We  read      spired  by 

/.  ........  ,  .  _        the  prospect 

often    of    individuals,    and    sometimes    of      Of  Roman 
whole    towns,    committing    suicide    sooner      slaveir- 
than  fall  into  the  conquerors'  hands.     Sometimes  slaves 
slew  their  dealers,  sometimes  one  another.      A  boy  in 
Spain   killed   his   three  sisters  and   starved  himself  to 


1 2  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.         CH.  I. 

avoid  slavery.      Women  killed  their  children  with  the 
same  object.     If,  as  it  is  asserted,  the  plantation-system 
was  not  yet  introduced  into   Italy,  such  stories,  and  the 
desperate   outbreaks,  and  almost   incredibly  merciless 
suppression  of  slave  revolts,  prove  that  the  condition  of 
^  the  Roman  slave  was  sufficiently  miserable.     But  doubt- 
less  misery   reached   its   climax   in    Sicily, 
The  horrors      where  that  system  was  in  full  swing.  Slaves 

of  slavery  * 

culminated  not  sold  for  domestic  service  were  there 
branded  and  often  made  to  work  in  chains, 
the  strongest  serving  as  shepherds.  Badly  fed  and 
clothed,  these  shepherds  plundered  whenever  they  found 
the  chance.  Such  brigandage  was  winked  at,  and  some- 
times positively  encouraged,  by  the  owners,  while  the 
governors  shrank  from  punishing  the  brigands  for  fear 
of  offending  their  masters.  As  the  demand  for  slaves 
grew,  slave-breeding  as  well  as  slave-importation  was 
practised.  No  doubt  there  were  as  various  theories  as 
to  the  most  profitable  management  of  slaves  then  as  in 
America  lately.  Damophilus  had  the  instincts  of  a  Le- 
gree  :  a  Haley  and  a  Cato  would  have  held  much  the 
same  sentiments  as  to  the  rearing  of  infants.  Some 
masters  would  breed  and  rear,  and  try  to  get  more  work 
from  the  slave  by  kindness  than  harshness.  Others 
would  work  them  off  and  buy  afresh ;  and  as  this  would 
be  probably  the  cheapest  policy,  no  doubt  it  was  the 
prevalent  one.  And  what  an  appalling  vista  of  dumb 
suffering  do  such  considerations  open  to  us!  Cold,  hun- 
ger, nakedness,  torture,  infamy,  a  foreign  country,  a 
strange  climate,  a  life  so  hard  that  it  made  the  early 
death  which  was  almost  inevitable  a  comparative  bless- 
ing— such  was  the  terrible  lot  of  the  Roman  slave.  At 
last,  almost  simultaneously  at  various  places  in  the 
Roman  dominions,  he  turned  like  a  beast  upon  a  brutal 


CH.  i.  Antecedents  of  the  Revolution.  13 

drover.     At  Rome,  at   Minturnae,  at  Sinu- 

T>»    1          •       -MT          j       •  j    •      <••••    M  Outbreaks 

essa,  at  Delos,  in  Macedonia,  and  in  Sicily  tn  various 
insurrections  or  attempts  at  insurrections  quarters, 
broke  out.  They  were  everywhere  mercilessly  sup- 
pressed, and  by  wholesale  torture  and  crucifixion  the 
conquerors  tried  to  clothe  death,  their  last  ally,  with  terror 
which  even  a  slave  dared  not  encounter.  In  the  year 
when  Tiberius  Gracchus  was  tribune  (and  the  coin- 
cidence is  significant),  it  was  found  necessary  to  send  a 
consul  to  put  down  the  first  slave  revolt  in  Sicily.  It 
is  not  known  when  it  broke  out.  Its  proximate  cause 
was  the  brutality  of  Damophilus,  of  Enna, 
and  his  wife  Megallis.  His  slaves  consulted  Damo-° 

a  man  named  Eunous,  a  Syrian-Greek,  who  phiius. 

had  long  foretold  that  he  would  be  a  king,  and  whom  his 
master's  guests  had  been  in  the  habit  of  jestingly  asking 
to  remember  them  when  he  came  to  the  throne.  Eunous 
led  a  band  of  400  against  Enna.  He  could  spout  fire 
from  his  mouth,  and  his  juggling  and  prophesying 
inspired  confidence  in  his  followers.  All  the 

r  -r^  ,    .  1  The  first 

men  of  r-nna  were  slam  except  the  armour-  Sicilian 
ers,  who  were  fettered  and  compelled  to 
forge  arms.  Damophilus  and  Megallis  were  brought 
with  every  insult  into  the  theatre.  He  began  to  beg  for 
his  life  with  some  effect,  but  Hermeias  and  another  cut 
him  down ;  and  his  wife,  after  being  tortured  by  the  wo- 
men, was  cast  over  a  precipice.  But  their  daughter  had 
been  gentle  to  the  slaves,  and  they  not  only  did  not 
harm  her,  but  sent  her  under  an  escort,  of  which  this 
Hermeias  was  one,  to  Catana.  Eunous  was  now  made 
king,  and  called  himself  Antiochus.  He  made  Achaeus 
his  general,  was  joined  by  Cleon  with  5,000  slaves,  and 
soon  mustered  10,000  men.  Four  praetors  (according  to 
Florus)  were  defeated  ;  the  number  of  the  rebels  rapid- 


14  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.         CH.  I. 

ly  increased  to  200,000  ;  and  the  whole  island  except  a 
few  towns  was  at  their  mercy.  In  134  the  consul  Flaccus 
went  to  Sicily  ;  but  with  what  result  is  not  known.  In 
133  the  consul  L.  Calpurnius  Piso  captured  Messana, 
killed  8,000  slaves,  and  crucified  all  his  prisoners.  In 
132  P.  Rupilius  captured  the  two  strongholds  of  the 
slaves,  Tauromenium  and  Enna  (Taormina  and  Castra- 
giovanni).  Both  towns  stood  on  the  top  ledges  of  pre- 
cipices, and  were  hardly  accessible.  Each  was  block- 
aded and  each  was  eventually  surrendered  by  a  traitor. 
But  at  Tauromenium  the  defenders  held  out,  it  is  said, 
till  all  food  was  gone,  and  they  had  eaten  the  children, 
and  the  women,  and  some  of  the  men.  Cleon's  brother 
Comanus  was  taken  here  ;  all  the  prisoners  were  first 
tortured,  and  then  thrown  down  the  rocks.  At  Enna 
Cleon  made  a  gallant  sally,  and  died  of  his  wounds. 
Eunous  fled  and  was  pulled  out  of  a  pit  with  his  cook, 
his  baker,  his  bathman,  and  his  fool.  He  is  said  to 
have  died  in  prison  of  the  same  disease  as  Sulla  and 
Herod.  Rupilius  crucified  over  20,000  slaves,  and  so 
quenched  with  blood  the  last  fires  of  rebellion. 

Besides  the  dangers  threatening  society  from  the  dis- 
content of  the  poor,  the  aggressions  of  the  rich,  the  mul- 
tiplication and  ferocious  treatment  of  slaves,  and  the 
social  rivalries  of  the  capital,  the  condition  of  Italy  and 
the  general  deterioration  of  public  morality  imperatively 
demanded  reform.  It  has  been  already  said  that  we  do 
not  know  for  certain  how  the  plebs  arose.  But  we  know 
how  it  wrested  political  equality  from  the  patres,  and, 
speaking  roughly,  we  may  date  the  fusion  of  the  two 
orders  under  the  common  title  "  nobiles,"  from  the  Lici- 
nian  laws.  It  had  been  a  gradual  change,  peaceably 
brought  about,  and  the  larger  number  having  absorbed 
the  smaller,  the  term  "nobiles,"  which  specifically  meant 


CH.  i.  Antecedents  of  the  Revolution.  j  5 

those  who  had  themselves  filled  a  curule 
office,  or  whose  fathers  had  done  so,  com-  bile's  "at" 
prehended  in  common  usage  the  old  no- 
bility and  the  new.  The  new  nobles  rapidly  drew  aloof 
from  the  residuum  of  the  plebs,  and,  in  the  true  parvenu 
spirit,  aped  and  outdid  the  arrogance  of  the  old  patri- 
cians. Down  to  the  time  of  the  Gracchi,  or  thereabouts, 
the  two  great  State  parties  consisted  of  the  plebs  on  the 
one  hand,  and  these  nobiles  on  the  other.  After  that 
date  new  names  come  into  use,  though  we  can  no  more 
fix  the  exact  time  when  the  terms  optimates  „,, 

The  "opti- 

and   populares   superseded   previous  party     mates"  and 

,.   ,  ,  ~  "populares." 

watchwords  than  we  can  when  Tory  gave 
place  to  Conservative,  and  Whig  to  Liberal.  Thus  pa- 
tricians and  plebeians  were  obsolete  terms,  and  nobles 
and  plebeians  no  longer  had  any  political  meaning,  for 
each  was  equal  in  the  sight  of  the  law;  each  had  a  vote  ; 
each  was  eligible  to  every  office.  But  when  the  fall  of 
Carthage  freed  Rome  from  all  rivals,  and  conquest  after 
conquest  filled  the  treasury,  increased  luxury  made  the 
means  of  ostentation  more  greedily  sought.  Office 
meant  plunder;  and  to  gain  office  men  bribed,  and 
bribed  every  day  on  a  vaster  scale.  If  we  said  that 
''optimates"  signified  the  men  who  bribed  and  abused 
office  under  the  banner  of  the  Senate  and  its  connec- 
tions, and  that  "  populares"  meant  men  who  bribed  and 
abused  office  with  the  interests  of  the  people  outside  the 
senatorial  pale  upon  their  lips,  we  might  do  injustice  to 
many  good  men  on  both  sides,  but  should  hardly  be 
slandering  the  parties.  Parties  in  fact  they  were  not. 
They  were  factions,  and  the  fact  that  it  is  by  no  means 
easy  always  to  decide  how  far  individuals  were  swayed 
by  good  or  bad  motives,  where  good  motives  were  so 
often  paraded  to  mask  base  actions,  does  not  disguise 


1 6  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.         CH.  i. 

their  despicable  character.  Honest  optimates  would 
wish  to  maintain  the  Senate's  preponderance  from  af- 
fection to  it,  and  from  belief  in  its  being  the  mainstay  of 
the  State.  Honest  populares,  like  the  Gracchi,  who  saw 
the  evils  of  senatorial  rule,  tried  to  win  the  popular  vote 
to  compass  its  overthrow.  Dishonest  politicians  of  either 
side  advocated  conservatism  or  change  simply  from  the 
most  selfish  personal  ambition ;  and  in  time  of  general 
moral  laxity  it  is  the  dishonest  politicians  who  give  the 
tone  to  a  party.  The  most  unscrupulous  members  of 
the  ruling  ring,  the  most  shameless  panderers  to  mob 
prejudice,  carry  all  before  them.  Both  seek  one  thing 
only — personal  ascendency,  and  the  State  becomes  the 
bone  over  which  the  vilest  curs  wrangle. 

In  writing  of  the  Gracchi  reference  will  be  made  to 
the  Equites.    The  name  had  broadened  from  its  original 

meaning,  and  now  merely  denoted  all  non- 
equites were.  senatorial  rich  men.  An  individual  eques 

would  lean  to  the  senatorial  faction  or  the 
faction  of  men  too  poor  to  keep  a  horse  for  cavalry  ser- 
vice, just  as  his  connections  were  chiefly  with  the  one 
or  the  other.  How,  as  a  body,  the  equites  veered  round 
alternately  to  each  side,  we  shall  see  hereafter.  Instead 
of  forming  a  sound  middle  class  to  check  the  excesses  of 
both  parties,  they  were  swayed  chiefly  by  sordid  motives, 
and  backed  up  the  men  who  for  the  time  seemed  most 
willing  or  able  to  gratify  their  greed.  What  went  on  at 
Rome  must  have  been  repeated  over  again  with  more  or 
less  exactitude  throughout  Italy,  and  there,  in  addition 
to  this  process  of  national  disintegration,  the  clouds  of  a 
political  storm  were  gathering.  The  following  table  will 
show  at  a  glance  the  classification  of  the  Roman  State 
as  constituted  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Social  War: 


CH.  I. 


Antecedents  of  the  Revolution. 


Cives 


}i.  Rome 
2.  Roman      "}  - 
Colonies     >&  4 
3.  MunicipiaJ  W 


i.  Latini  or"| 
Nomen    >— 
LatinumJ 


a.  Old  Latin  towns 
except  such  as 
had  been  made 
Municipia. 

|3.  Colonies  of  old 
Latin  towns. 

y.  Joint  colonies  (if 
any)  of  Rome 
and  o;d  Latin 
towns. 

.    .  6.  Colonies  of  Ita- 

Peregnnt  \  liaus  from    all 

parts  of  Italy 
founded  by 
Rome  under 
the  name  of 
Latin  Colonies. 

2.  Socii,  i.e..  Free   inhabitants  of 

Italy. 

3.  Provincials,  i.e.,  Free  subjects 

of  Rome  out 
of  Italy. 

The  Gives  Roman!  in  and  out  of  Rome  had  the  Jus 
Suffragii  and  the  Jus  Honorum,  /.  e.,  the  right  to  vote 
and  the  right  to  hold  office.     A  Roman  Co- 
lony  was  in  its  organization  Rome  in  minia- 
ture,  and  the  people   among  whom  it  had 
been  planted  as  a  garrison  may  either  have  retained 
their   own    political    constitution,    or    have 
been  governed  by  a  magistrate  sent  from       coionR°man 
Rome.     They  were  not  Roman  citizens  ex- 
cept as  being  residents  of  a  Roman  city,  but  by  irregular 
marriages  with  Romans  the  line  of  demarcation  between 
the  two  peoples  may  have  grown  less  clearly  defined. 
Prcefectura  was  the  generic  name  for  Roman 
colonies  and  for  all  municipia  to  which  pre-       Pr^fectura 
fects  were  sent  annually  to  administer  jus- 
tice.    Municipia  are  supposed  to  have  been  originally 
those  conquered  Italian  towns  to  which  Con- 
nubium  and  Commercium,  /.  e.,  rights  of  inter- 
marriage and  of  trade,  were  given,  but  from  whom  Jus 
Suffragii  and  Jus  Honorum  were  withheld.    These  privi- 
leges, however,  were  conferred  on  them  before  the  Social 
C 


Rights  of 

Gives 


Municipia. 


1 8  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.        CH.  i. 

War.  Some  were  governed  by  Roman  magistrates  and 
some  were  self-governed.  They  voted  in  the  Roman 
tribes,  though  probably  only  a\  important  crises,  such  as 
the  agitation  for  an  agrarian  law.  They  were  under  the 
Praetor  Urban  us,  but  vicarious  justice  was  administered 
among  them  by  an  official  called  Prafectus  juri 
dicundo,  sent  yearly  from  Rome. 

The  Latini  had  no  vote  at  Rome,  no  right  of  holding 

offices,  and  were  practically  Roman  subjects.   A  Roman 

who  joined  a  Latin   colony  ceased  to  be  a 

The  Latini.  ^  .  .  _____      _  ,  ,. c 

Roman  citizen.    Whether  there  was  any  dif- 
ference between  the  internal  administration  of  a  Latin 
colony  and  an  old  Latin  town  is  uncertain.     The  Latini 
may  have  had  Commercium  and  Connubium,  or  only 
the  former.     They  certainly  had  not  Jus  Suffragii  or  Jus 
Honorum,  and  they  were  in  subjection  to  Rome.      A 
Latin  could  obtain  the  Roman  franchise,  but  the  mode 
of  doing  so  at  this  time  is  a  disputed  point.     Livy  men- 
tions a  law  which  enabled  a  Latin  to  obtain  the  franchise  \ 
by  migrating  to  Rome  and  being  enrolled  in  the  census,  \ 
provided  he  left  children  behind  him  to  fill  his  place. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  either  legally  or  irregularly  La-  J 
tini  did  migrate  to  Rome  and  did  so  obtain  the  citizen-J 
ship,  but  we  know  no  more.     Others  say  that  the  later 
right  by  which  a  Latin  obtained  the  citizenship  in  virtue 
of  filling    a    magistracy   in    his    native    town    existed 
already. 

Of  the   Socii,    all    or    many   of  them   had   treaties 

defining  their   relations  to    Rome,  and   were  therefore 

known  as  Fcederatae  Civitates.     They  had 

>cu*        internal   self-government,  but   were  bound 

to  supply  Rome  with  soldiers,  ships,  and  sailors. 

At  the  time  of  the  Gracchi  discontent  was  seething 
among  the  Latins  and  allies.     There  were  two  classes 


CH.  i.  Antecedent*  of  the  Revolution.  19 

among  them — the  rich  landlords  and  capitalists,  who 
prospered  as  the  rich  at  Rome  prospered,  and  the  poor 
who  were  weighed  down  by  debt  or  were  pushed  out  of 
their  farms  by  slave-labour,  or  were  hangers-on  of  the 
rich  in  the  towns  and  eager  for  distributions 
of  land.  The  poor  were  oppressed  no  doubt  SIST"0* 
by  the  rich  men  both  of  their  own  cities  and  Latins  and 
of  Rome.  The  rich  chafed  at  the  intolera- 
ble insolence  of  Roman  officials.  It  was  not  that  Rome 
interfered  with  the  local  self-government  she  had  granted 
by  treaty,  but  the  Italians  laboured  under  grievous  disa- 
bilities and  oppression.  So  late  as  the  Jugurthine  war, 
Latin  officers  were  executed  by  martial  law,  whereas  any 
Roman  soldier  could  appeal  to  a  civil  tribunal.  Again, 
while  the  armies  had  formerly  been  recruited  from  the 
Romans  and  the  allies  equally,  now  the  severest  service 
and  the  main  weight  of  wars  fell  on  the  latter,  who  fur- 
nished, moreover,  two  soldiers  to  every  Roman.  Again, 
without  a  certain  amount  of  property,  a  man  at  Rome 
could  not  be  enrolled  in  the  army  ;  but  the  rule  seems 
not  to  have  applied  to  Italians.  Nor  was  the  civil  less 
harsh  than  the  military  administration,  A  consul's  wife 
wished  to  use  the  men's  bath  at  Teanum  ;  and  because 
the  bathers  were  not  cleared  out  quickly  enough,  and 
the  baths  were  not  clean  enough,  M.  Marius,  the  chief 
magistrate  of  the  town,  was  stripped  and  scourged  in  the 
market-place.  A  free  herdsman  asked  in  joke  if  it  was  a 
corpse  that  was  in  a  litter  passing  through  Venusia,  and 
which  contained  a  young  Roman.  Though  not  even  an 
official,  its  occupant  showed  that,  if  lazy,  he  was  at  least 
alive,  by  having  the  peasant  whipped  to  death  with  the 
litter  straps.  In  short,  the  rich  Italians  would  feel  the 
need  of  the  franchise  as  strongly  as  the  old  plebeians  had 
felt  it,  and  all  the  more  strongly  because  the  Romans 


20  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.        CH.  I. 

had  not  only  ceased  to  enfranchise  whole  communities, 
but  were  chary  of  giving  the  citizenship  even  to  individ- 
uals. The  poor  also  had  the  ordinary  grievances  against 
their  own  rich,  and  were  so  far  likely  to  favour  the 
schemes  of  any  man  who  assailed  the  capitalist  class, 
Roman  or  Italian,  as  a  whole ;  but  they  none  the  less 
disliked  Roman  supremacy,  and  would  be  easily  per- 
suaded to  attribute  to  that  supremacy  some  of  the  hard- 
ships which  it  did  not  cause. 

While  such  fires  were  slowly  coming  to  the  surface  in 
Italy,  and  were  soon  to  flame  out  in  the  Social  War,  the 
state  of  the  provinces  out  of  the  peninsula  was  not  more 

reassuring.  The  struggle  with  Viriathus  and 
transmarine6  the  Numantine  war  had  revealed  the  fact  that 
provinces.  tlie  last  place  to  look  for  ^h  martial  ho- 
nour or  heroic  virtue  was  the  Roman  army.  If  a  Scipio 
sustained  the  traditions  of  Roman  generalship,  and  a 
Gracchus  those  of  republican  rectitude,  other  com- 
manders would  have  stained  the  military  annals  of  any 
nation.  Roman  generals  had  come  to  wage  war  for 
themselves  and  not  for  the  State.  They  even  waged  it 
in  defiance  of  the  State's  express  orders.  If  they  found 

peace  in  the  provinces,  they  found  means  to 

Deteriora-  » 

tion  of  break  it,  hoping  to  glut  their  avarice  by  pil- 

general-  lage  or  by  the  receipt  of  bribes,  which  it  was 

sh  P)  now  quite  the  exception  not  to  accept,  or  to 

win  sham  laurels  and  cheap  triumphs  from  some  misera- 
ble raid  on  half-armed  barbarians.  Often  these  carpet- 
knights  were  disgracefully  beaten,  though  infamy  in  the 
provinces  sometimes  became  fame  at  Rome,  and  then 
they  resorted  to  shameful  trickery  repeated  again  and 
again.  The  State  and  the  army  were  worthy  of  the  com- 
manders. The  former  engaged  in  perhaps  the  worst  wars 
that  can  be  waged.  Hounded  on  by  its  mercantile  class, 


CH.  I.  Antecedents  of  the  Revolution.  21 

it  fought  not  for  a  dream  of  dominion,  or  to  beat  back 
encroaching  barbarism,  but  to  exterminate  a  commercial 
rival.  The  latter,  which  it  was  hard  to  recruit  on  account 
of  the  growing  effeminacy  of  the  city,  it  was  harder  still 
to  keep  under  discipline.  It  was  followed  by  trains  of 
cooks,  and  actors,  and  the  viler  appendages 
of  oriental  luxury,  and  was  learning  to  be  Arm°f  th* 
satisfied  with  such  victories  as  were  won  by 
the  assassination  of  hostile  generals,  or  ratified  by  the 
massacre  of  men  who  had  been  guaranteed  their  lives. 
The  Roman  fleet  was  even  more  inefficient  than  the 
army ;  and  pirates  roved  at  will  over  the  Mediterranean, 
pillaging  this  island,  waging  open  war  with  that,  and 
carrying  off  the  population  as  slaves.  A  new  empire  was 
rising  in  the  East,  as  Rome  permitted  the  Parthians  to 
wrest  Persia,  Babylonia,  and  Media  from  the  Syrian 
kings.  The  selfish  maxim,  Divide  et  imperat  assumed 
its  meanest  form  as  it  was  now  pursued.  It  is  a  poor 
and  cowardly  policy  for  a  great  nation  to  pit  against  each 
other  its  semi-civilized  dependencies,  and  to  fan  their 
jealousies  in  order  to  prevent  any  common  action  on 
their  part,  or  to  avoid  drawing  the  sword  for  their  sup- 
pression. Slave  revolts,  constant  petty  wars,  and  piracy 
v/ere  preying  on  the  unhappy  provincials,  and  in  the 
Roman  protectorate  they  found  no  aid.  All  their  harsh 
mistress  did  was  to  turn  loose  upon  them  hordes  of  mo- 
ney-lenders and  tax-farmers  ("  negotiatores,"  and  "  pu* 
blicani  '*),  who  cleared  off  what  was  left  by  those  stronge^ 
creatures  of  prey,  the  proconsuls.  '  Thus  the  misery 
caused  by  a  meddlesome  and  nerveless  national  policy 
was  enhanced  by  a  domestic  administration  based  oq 
turpitude  and  extortion. 

Everywhere  Rome  was  failing  in  her  duties  as  mistress 
of  the  civilized  world.  Her  own  internal  degeneracy  was 


22  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.          CH.  I. 

faithfully  reflected  in  the  abnegation  of  her 
degeneracy  imperial  duties.  When  in  any  country  the 
vernm-nT  small-farmer  class  is  being  squeezed  off  the 
and  decay  of  land  ;  when  its  labourers  are  slaves  or  serfs ; 

the  nation.  .  .  .  .    . 

when  huge  tracts  are  kept  waste  to  minister 
to  pleasure ;  when  the  shibboleth  of  art  is  on  every  man's 
lips,  but  ideas  of  true  beauty  in  very  few  men's  souls  ; 
when  the  business-sharper  is  the  greatest  man  in  the  city, 
and  lords  it  even  in  the  law  courts ;  when  class-magis- 
trates, bidding  for  high  office,  deal  out  justice  according 
to  the  rank  of  the  criminal  ;  when  exchanges  are  turned 
into  great  gambling-houses,  and  senators  and  men  of 
title  are  the  chief  gamblers  ;  when,  in  short,  "corruption 
is  universal,  when  there  is  increasing  audacity,  increas- 
ing greed,  increasing  fraud,  increasing  impurity,  and 
these  are  fed  by  increasing  indulgence  and  ostentation  ; 
when  a  considerable  number  of  trials  in  the  courts  of  law 
bring  out  the  fact  that  the  country  in  general  is  now  re- 
garded as  a  prey,  upon  which  any  number  of  vultures, 
scenting  it  from  afar,  may  safely  light  and  securely  gorge 
themselves ;  when  the  foul  tribe  is  amply  replenished  by 
its  congeners  at  home,  and  foreign  invaders  find  any 
number  of  men,  bearing  good  names,  ready  to  assist 
them  in  robberies  far  more  cruel  and  sweeping  than 
those  of  the  footpad  or  burglar  "—when  such  is  the  tone 
of  society,  and  such  the  idols  before  which  it  bends,  a 
nation  must  be  fast  going  down  hill. 

A  more  repulsive  picture  can  hardly  be  imagined.  A 
mob,  a  moneyed  class,  and  an  aristocracy  almost  equally 
worthless,  hating  each  other,  and  hated  by  the  rest  of  the 
world;  Italians  bitterly  jealous  of  Romans,  and  only  in 
better  plight  than  the  provinces  beyond  the  sea ;  more 
miserable  than  either,  swarms  of  slaves  beginning  to 
brood  over  revenge  as  a  solace  to  their  sufferings ;  the 


B.  C.  133.  Tiberius  Gracchus.  23 

land  going  out  of  cultivation  ;  native  industry  swamped 
by  slave-grown  imports;  the  population  decreasing  ;  the 
army  degenerating ;  wars  waged  as  a  speculation,  but 
only  against  the  weak  ;  provinces  subjected  to  organized 
pillage  ;  in  the  metropolis  childish  superstition,  whole- 
sale  luxury,  and  monstrous  vice.  The  hour  for  reform 
was  surely  come.  Who  was  to  be  the  man  ? 


CHAPTER  II. 

TIBERIUS   GRACCHUS. 

GENERAL  expectation  would  have  pointed  to  Scipio 
^milianus,  the  conqueror  of  Numantia  and  Carthage, 
and  the  foremost  man  at  Rome.     He  was 
well-meaning    and    more    than    ordinarily        %W? 

'  yLrnilianus. 

able,  strict  and  austere  as  a  general,  and  as 
a  citizen  uniting  Greek  culture  with  the  old  Roman  sim- 
plicity of  life.  He  was  full  of  scorn  of  the  rabble,  and 
did  not  scruple  to  express  it.  "  Silence,"  he  cried,  when 
he  was  hissed  for  what  he  said  about  his  brother-in-law's 
death,  "you  step-children  of  Italy  !"  and  when  this  en- 
raged them  still  more,  he  went  on :  "  Do  you  think  I 
shall  fear  you  whom  I  brought  to  Italy  in  fetters  now 
that  you  are  loose  ?"  He  showed  equal  scorn  for  such 
pursuits  as  at  Rome  at  least  were  associated  with  effemi- 
nacy and  vice,  and  expressed  in  lively  language  his  dis- 
like of  singing  and  dancing.  "  Our  children  are  taught 
disgraceful  tricks.  They  go  to  actors'  schools  with  sam- 
bucas  and  psalteries.  They  learn  to  sing — a  thing  which 
our  ancestors  considered  to  be  a  disgrace  to  freeborn 
children.  When  I  was  told  this  I  could  not  believe  that 
men  of  noble  rank  allowed  their  children  to  be  taught 
such  things.  But  being  taken  to  a  dancing  school  I  sav* 


24  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.    B.  c.  1 33. 

—  I  did  upon  my  honour — more  than  fifty  boys  and  girls 
in  the  school ;  and  among  them  one  boy,  quite  a  child, 
about  twelve  years  of  age,  the  son  of  a  man  who  was  at 
that  time  a  candidate  for  office.  And  what  I  saw  made 
me  pity  the  Commonwealth.  I  saw  the  child  dancing  to 
the  castanets,  and  it  was  a  dance  which  one  of  our 
wretched,  shameless  slaves  would  not  have  danced." 
On  another  occasion  he  showed  a  power  of  quick  retort. 
As  censor  he  had  degraded  a  man  named  Asellus,  whom 
Mummius  afterwards  restored  to  the  equites.  Asellus 
impeached  Scipio,  and  taunted  him  with  the  unluckiness 
of  his  censorship — its  mortality,  etc.  "  No  wonder," 
said  Scipio,  "  for  the  man  who  inaugurated  it  rehabili- 
tated you.'* 

Such  anecdotes  show  that  he  was  a  vigorous  speaker. 
He  was  of  a  healthy  constitution,  temperate,  brave,  and 
honest  in  money  matters ;  for  he  led  a  simple  life,  and 
with  all  his  opportunities  for  extortion  did  not  die  rich. 
Polybius,  the  historian,  Panaetius,  the  philosopher,  Ter- 
ence and  Lucilius,  the  poets,  and  the  orator  and  politi- 
cian Lselius  were  his  friends.  From  his  position,  his 
talents,  and  his  associations,  he  seemed  marked  out  as 
the  one  man  who  could  and  would  desire  to  step  forth  as 
the  saviour  of  his  country.  But  such  self-sacrifice  is  not 
exhibited  by  men  of  Scipio's  type.  Too  able  to  be  blind 
to  the  signs  of  the  times,  they  are  swayed  by  instincts 
too  strong  for  their  convictions.  An  aristocrat  of  aristo- 
crats, Scipio  was  a  reformer  only  so  far  as  he  thought 
reform  might  prolong  the  reign  of  his  order.  From  any 
more  radical  measures  he  shrank  with  dislike,  if  not 
with  fear.  The  weak  spot  often  to  be  found  in  those 
cultured  aristocrats  who  coquet  with  liberalism  was  fatal 
to  his  chance  of  being  a  hero.  He  was  a  trimmer  to  the 
core,  who,  without  intentional  dishonesty,  stood  facing 


B-c-  T33-  Tiberius  Gracchus.  25 

both  ways  till  the  hour  came  when  he  was  forced  to 
range  himself  on  one  side  or  the  other,  and  then  he  took 
the  side  which  he  must  have  known  to  be  the  wrong  one. 
Palliation  of  the  errors  of  a  man  placed  in  so  terribly 
difficult  a  position  is  only  just ;  but  laudation  of  his 
statesmanship  seems  absurd.  As  a  statesman  he  carried 
not  one  great  measure,  and  if  one  was  conceived  in  his 
circle,  he  cordially  approved  of  its  abandonment.  To 
those  who  claim  for  him  that  he  saw  the  impossibility  of 
those  changes  which  his  brother-in-law  advocated,  it  is 
sufficient  to  reply  that  Rome  did  not  rest  till  those 
changes  had  been  adopted,  and  that  the  hearty  co- 
operation of  himself  and  his  friends  would  have  gone 
far  to  turn  failure  into  success.  But  his  mind  was  too 
\arrow  to  break  through  the  associations  which  had  en- 
vironed him  from  his  childhood.  When  Tiberius  Grac- 
chus, a  nobler  man  than  himself,  had  suffered  martyr- 
dom for  the  cause  with  which  he  had  only  dallied,  he 
was  base  enough  to  quote  from  Homer  <5f  CI^AOLTO  *al 
a/Uof  brig  rotavrd  ye  oe^oi — "  So  perish  all  who  do  the  like 
again. '* 

But  the  splendid  peril  which  Scipio  shrank  from  en- 
countering, his  brother-in-law  courted  with  the  fire  and 
passion  of  youth.     Tiberius  Sempronius  Gracchus  was, 
according  to  Plutarch,  not  quite  thirty  when 
he  was  murdered.    Plutarch  may  have  been          Tiberius 

Oraccnus. 

mistaken,  and  possibly  he  was  thirty-five. 
His  father,  whose  name  he  bore,  had  been  a  magnificent 
aristocrat,  and  his  mother  was  Cornelia,  daughter  of 
Hannibal's  conqueror,  the  first  Scipio  Africanus,  and 
one  of  the  comparatively  few  women  whose  names  are 
famous  in  history.  He  had  much  in  common  with  Scipio 
yEmilianus,  whom  he  resembled  in  rank  and  refine- 
ment, in  valour,  in  his  familiarity  with  Hellenic  culture, 


26  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.    B.C.  133. 

and  in  the  style  of  his  speeches.  Diophanes,  of  Mity- 
lene,  taught  him  oratory.  The  philosopher,  Blossius,  of 
Cumae,  was  his  friend.  He  belonged  to  the  most  dis- 
tinguished circle  at  Rome.  He  had  married  the  daugh- 
ter of  Appius,  and  his  brother  had  married  the  daughter 
of  Mucianus.  ,  He  had  served  under  Scipio,  and  dis- 
played striking  bravery  at  Carthage  ;  and,  as  quaestor  of 
the  incompetent  Mancinus,  had  by  his  character  for  pro- 
bity saved  a  Roman  army  from  destruction ;  for  the 
Numantines  would  not  treat  with  the  consul,  but  only 
with  Gracchus.  No  man  had  a  more  brilliant  career 
open  to  him  at  Rome,  had  he  been  content  only  to  shut 
his  eyes  to  the  fate  that  threatened  his  country.  But  he 
had  .not  only  insight  but  a  conscience,  and  cheerfully 
risked  his  life  to  avert  the  ruin  which  he  foresaw.  His 
character  has  been  as  much  debated  as  his  measures, 
and  the  most  opposite  conclusions  have  been  formed 
about  both,  so  that  his  name  is  a  synonym  for  patriot 
with  some,  for  demagogue  with  others.  Even  historians 
of  our  own  day  are  still  at  variance  as  to  the  nature  of 
his  legislation.  But  from  a  comparison  of  their  re- 
searches, and  an  independent  examination  of  the  autho- 
rities on  which  they  are  based,  something  like  a  clear 
conception  of  the  plans  of  Gracchus  seems  possible. 
What  has  never,  perhaps,  as  yet  been  made  sufficiently 
plain  is,  who  it  was  that  Gracchus  especially  meant  to 
benefit.  Much  of  the  public  land  previously  described 
lay  in  the  north  and  south  of  Italy  from  the  frontier 
rivers  Rubicon  and  Macra  to  Apulia.  It  formed,  as 
Appian  says,  the  largest  portion  of  the  land 

.Agrarnn  *    * 

proposals  of      taken   from    conquered    towns    by   Rome. 

What  Gracchus  proposed  was  to  take  from 

the  rich  and  give  to  the  poor  some  of  this  land.      It  was, 

in  fact,  merely  the  Licinian  law  over  again  with  certain 


B.  c.  133.  Tiberius  Gracchus.  27 

modifications,  and  the  existence  of  that  law  would  make 
the  necessity  for  a  repetition  of  it  inexplicable  had  it  not 
been  a  curious  principle  with  the  Romans  that  a  law 
which  had  fallen  into  desuetude  ceased  to  be  binding. 
But  it  actually  fell  short  of  the  law  of  Licinius,  for  it  pro- 
vided that  he  who  surrendered  what  he  held  over  and 
above  500  jugera  should  be  guaranteed  in  the  permanent 
possession  of  that  quantity,  and  moreover  might  retain 
250  jugera  in  addition  for  each  of  his  sons.  Some 
writers  conjecture  that  altogether  an  occupier  might  not 
hold  more  than  1,000  jugera. 

Now  the  first  thing  to  remark  about  the  law  is  that  it 
was  by  no  means  a  demagogue's  sop  tossed  to  the  city 
mob  which  he  was  courting.  Gracchus  saw  slave  labour 
ruining  free  labour,  and  the  manhood  and  soil  of  Italy 
and  the  Roman  army  proportionately  depreciated.  To 
fill  the  vacuum  he  proposed  to  distribute  to 
the  poor  not  only  of  Rome  but  of  the  Muni-  demagogic 
cipia,  of  the  Roman  colonies,  and,  it  is  to  be  about  th.e 

proposal. 

presumed,  of  the  Socii  also,  land  taken 
from  the  rich  members  of  those  four  component  parts  of 
the  Roman  State.  This  consideration  alone  destroys  at 
once  the  absurd  imputation  of  his  being  actuated  merely 
by  demagogic  motives  ;  but  in  no  history  is  it  adequately 
enforced.  No  demagogue  at  that  epoch  would  have 
spread  his  nets  so  wide.  At  the  same  time  it  gives  the 
key  to  the  subsequent  manoeuvres  by  which  his  enemies 
strove  to  divide  his  partisans.  Broadly,  then,  we  may 
say  that  Gracchus  struck  boldly  at  the  very  root  of  the 
decadence  of  the  whole  peninsula,  and  that  if  his  remedy 
could  not  cure  it  nothing  else  could.  How 
the  Socii  became  possessors  of  the  public  ,Th^  Socil'— 

land-owners. 

land   we   do    not    know.      Probably    they 

bought  it  from  Gives  Romani,  its  authorized  occupiers, 


28  The  Gracchi,  Mariifs,  and  Sulla.   0.0.133. 

with  the  connivance  of  the  State.  We  now  see  from 
whom  the  land  was  to  be  taken,  namely,  the  rich  all 
over  Italy,  and  to  whom  it  was  to  be  given,  the  poor  all 
over  Italy;  and  also  the  object  with  which  it  was  to  be 
given,  namely,  to  re-create  a  peasantry,  and  stop  the 

increase  of  the  slave-plague.  In  order  to 
fgTmst0a  prevent  the  law  becoming  a  dead  letter  like 
thekTvT °f  t*13*  °^  Licinius,  owing  to  poor  men  selling 

their  land  as  soon  as  they  got  it,  he  proposed 
that  the  new  land-owners  should  not  have  the  right  to 
dispose  of  their  land  to  others,  and  for  this,  though  it 
would  have  been  hard  to  carry  out,  we  cannot  see  what 
other  proviso  could  have  been  substituted.  Lastly,  as 
ieath  and  other  causes  would  constantly  render  changes 
m  the  holdings  inevitable,  he  proposed  that  a  permanent 
board  should  have  the  superintendence  of  them,  and 
this  too  was  a  wise  and  necessary  measure. 

We  can  understand  so  much  of  the  law  of  Gracchus, 
but  it  is  hard  thoroughly  to  understand  more.  It  has 
Provision  been  urged  as  a  difficulty  not  easily  ex- 
for  the  plained  that  few  people,  after  retaining  500 

administra-          .  r          ,  ,  .  <•  .        > 

tionofthe  jugera  for  themselves  and  250  for  each  of 
their  sons,  would  have  had  much  left  to 
surrender.  But  this  difficulty  is  imaginary  rather  than 
real;  for  Appian  says  that  the  public  land  was  "  the 
greater  part"  of  the  land  taken  by  Rome  from  conquered 
states,  and  the  great  families  may  have  had  vast  tracts 
of  it  pasture  land.  There  are,  however,  other  things 
which  with  our  meagre  knowledge  of  the  law  we  cannot 
explain.  For  instance,  was  a  hard  and  fast 
JJJSSha  ^ne  drawn  at  5°°  Ju£era  as  compensation 

law  hard  to       whether   a    man   surrendered   2  jugera   or 

understand.  111  •% 

2,000  beyond  that  amount?  Again,  con- 
sidering the  outcry  made,  it  is  hard  to  imagine  that 


B.C.  133.  Tiberius  Gracchus.  29 

only  those  possessing  above  500  jugera  were  interfered 
with.  But  this  perhaps  may  be  accounted  for  by  re- 
collecting that  in  such  matters  men  fight  bravely  against 
what  they  feel  to  be  the  thin  end  of  the  wedge,  even  if 
they  are  themselves  concerned  only  sympathetically. 
What  Gracchus  meant  to  do  with  the  slaves  displaced  by 
free  labour,  or  how  he  meant  to  decide  what  was  public 
and  what  was  private  land  after  inextricable  confusion 
between  the  two  in  many  parts  for  so  many  years,  we 
cannot  even  conjecture.  The  statesmanlike  comprehen- 
siveness, however,  of  his  main  propositions  justifies  us  in 
believing  that  he  had  not  overlooked  such  obvious  stum- 
bling-blocks in  his  way.  When  Appian  says  he  was  eager 
to  accomplish  what  he  thought  to  be  a  good 
thing,  we  concur  in  the  testimony  Appian  crFudsm*  of 
thus  gives  to  Gracchus  having  been  a  good  the  law' 
man.  But  when  he  goes  on  to  say  he  was  so  eager  that 
he  never  even  thought  of  the  difficulty,  we  prefer  to  judge 
Gracchus  by  his  own  acts  rather  than  by  Appian's 
criticism  or  the  similar  criticisms  of  modern  writers. 
The  speeches  ascribed  to  him,  which  are  apparently 
genuine,  seem  to  show  that  he  knew  well  enough  what 
he  was  about.  "  The  wild  beasts  of  Italy,"  he  said,  "  have 
their  dens  to  retire  to,  but  the  brave  men 
who  spill  their  blood  in  her  cause  have  no-  Speeches  of 

Gra-xhus, 

thing  left  but  air  and  light.  Without  homes,        explaining 

his  motives. 

without  settled  habitations,  they  wander 
from  place  to  place  with  their  wives  and  children  ;  and 
their  generals  do  but  mock  them  when  at  the  head  of 
their  armies  they  exhort  their  men  to  fight  for  their  sepul- 
chres and  the  gods  of  their  hearths,  for  among  such  num- 
bers perhaps  there  is  not  one  Roman  who  has  an  altar 
that  has  belonged  to  his  ancestors  or  a  sepulchre  in 
which  their  ashes  rest.  The  private  soldiers  fight  and 


30  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.    6.0.133. 

die  to  advance  the  wealth  and  luxury  of  the  great,  and 
they  are  called  masters  of  the  world  without  having  a 
sod  to  call  their  own."  Again,  he  asked,  "  Is  it  not  just 
that  what  belongs  to  the  people  should  be  shared  by  the 
people  ?  Is  a  man  with  no  capacity  for  righting  more 
useful  to  his  country  than  a  soldier  ?  Is  a  citizen  inferior 
to  a  slave  ?  Is  an  alien  or  one  who  owns  some  of  his 
country's  soil  the  best  patriot?  You  have  won  by  war 
most  of  your  possessions,  and  hope  to  acquire  the  rest  of 
the  habitable  globe.  But  now  it  is  but  a  hazard  whether 
you  gain  the  rest  by  bravery  or  whether  by  your  weak- 
ness and  discords  you  are  robbed  of  what  you  have  by 
your  foes.  Wherefore,  in  prospect  of  such  acquisitions, 
you  should  if  need  be  spontaneously  and  of  your  own 
free  will  yield  up  these  lands  to  those  who  will  rear 
children  for  the  service  of  the  State.  Do  not  sacrifice  a 
great  thing  while  striving  for  a  small,  especially  as  you 
are  to  receive  no  contemptible  compensation  for  your 
expenditure  on  the  land,  in  free  ownership  of  500  jugera 
secure  for  ever,  and  in  case  you  have  sons,  of  250  more 
for  each  of  them. 

The  striking  point  in  the  last  extract  is  his  remark 
about  a  "  small  thing."  It  is  likely  enough  that  the 
losses  of  the  proprietors  as  a  body  would  not  be  over- 
whelming, and  that  the  opposition  was  rendered  furious 
almost  as  much  by  the  principle  of  restitution,  and  inter- 
ference with  long-recognized  ownership,  as  by  the  value 
of  what  they  were  called  on  to  disgorge.  Hve  hundred 
jugera  of  slave-tended  pasture  land  could  not  have  been 
of  very  great  importance  to  a  rich  Roman,  who,  however, 
might  well  have  been  alarmed  by  the  warning  of 
Gracchus  with  regard  to  the  army,  for  in  foreign  service, 
and  not  in  grazing  or  ploughing,  the  fine  gentleman  of 
the  day  found  a  royal  road  to  wealth.  On  the  other  hand 


B.C.  133.  Tiberius  Gracchus.  31 

it  is  quite  comprehensible  both  that  the  pos-        Grievanceg 
sessors    imagined   that    they   had   a    great        o.  the 

,.r  possessois. 

grievance,  andthat  they  had  some  ground  tor 
their  belief.  A  possessor,  for  instance,  who  had  purchased 
from  another  in  the  full  faith  that  his  tkle  would  never 
be  disturbed,  had  more  right  to  be  indignant  than  a  pro- 
prietor of  Indian  stock  would  have,  if  in  case  of  the  bank- 
ruptcy of  the  Indian  Government  the  British  Govern- 
ment should  refuse  to  refund  his  money.  There  must 
have  been  numbers  of  such  cases  with  every  possible 
complexity  of  title;  and  even  if  the  class  that  would  be 
actually  affected  was  not  large,  it  was  powerful,  and 
every  land-owner  with  a  defective  title  would,  however 
small  his  holding  (provided  it  was  over  30  jugera,  the 
proposed  allotment),  take  the  alarm  and  help  to  swell 
the  cry  against  the  Tribune  as  a  demagogue  and  a  rob- 
ber. This  is  what  we  can  state  about  the  agrarian  law 
of  Tiberius  Gracchus.  It  remains  to  be  told  how  it  was 
carried. 

Gracchus  had  a  colleague  named  Octavius,  who  is 
said  to  have  been  his  personal  friend.  Octavius  had 
land  himself  to  lose  if  the  law  were  carried,  and  he 
opposed  it.  Gracchus  offered  to  pay  him  the  value  of 
the  land  out  of  his  own  purse  ;  but  Octavius 

How  the 

was  not  to  be  so  won  over,  and  as  Tribune          law  was 
interposed  his  veto  to  prevent  the  bill  being 
read  to  the  people  that  they  might  vote  on  it.     Tiberius 
retorted  by  using  his  power  to  suspend  public  business 
and  public  payments.     One  day,  when  the  people  were 
going  to  vote,  the  other  side  seized  the  voting  urns,  and 
then  Tiberius  and  the  rest  of  the  Tribunes  agreed  to  take 
the  opinion  of  the  Senate.     The  result  was  that  he  came 
away  more  hopeless  of  success  by  constitutional  means, 
and  doubtless  irritated  by  insult      He  then  proposed  to 


32  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.   6.0.133. 

Octavius  that  the  people  should  vote  whether  he  or 
Octavius  should  lose  office — a  weak  proposal  perhaps, 
but  the  proposal  of  an  honest,  generous  man,  whose  aim 
was  not  self-aggrandizement  but  the  public  weal. 
Octavius  naturally  refused.  Tiberius  called  together  the 
thirty-five  tribes,  to  vote  whether  or  no  Octavius  should 
be  deprived  of  his  office.  The  first  tribe 
deprived  of  voted  in  the  affirmative,  and  Gracchus  im- 
plored Octavius  even  now  to  give  way,  but 
in  vain.  The  next  sixteen  tribes  recorded 
the  same  vote,  and  once  more  Gracchus  interceded  with 
his  old  friend.  But  he  spoke  to  deaf  ears.  The  voting 
went  on,  and  when  Octavius,  on  his  Tribunate  being 
taken  from  him,  would  not  go  away,  Plutarch  says 
that  Tiberius  ordered  one  of  his  freedmen  to  drag  him 
from  the  Rostra. 

These  acts  of  Tiberius  Gracchus  are  commonly  said 
to  have  been  the  beginning  of  revolution  at  Rome  ;  and 
the  guilt  of  it  is  accordingly  laid  at  his  door.  And  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  guilty  in  the  sense  that  a 
man  is  guilty  who  introduces  a  light  into  some  chamber 
filled  with  explosive  vapour,  which  the  stupidity  or 
malice  of  others  has  suffered  to  accumulate.  But,  after 
all,  too  much  is  made  of  this  violation  of  constitutional 
forms  and  the  sanctity  of  the  Tribunate. 

Defence  of 

the  conduct  The  first  were  effete,  and  all  regular  means 
of  renovating  the  Republic  seemed  to  be 
closed  to  the  despairing  patriot,  by  stolid  obstinacy  shel- 
tering itself  under  the  garb  of  law  and  order.  The  sec- 
ond was  no  longer  what  it  had  been — the  recognized 
refuge  and  defence  of  the  poor.  The  rich,  as  Tiberius 
in  effect  argued,  had  found  out  how  to  use  it  also.  If  all 
men  who  set  the  example  of  forcible  infringement  of  law 
are  criminals,  Gracchus  was  a  criminal.  But  in  the 


B.C.  133.  Tiberius  Gracchus.  33 

world's  annals  he  sins  in  good  company.;  and  when  men 
condemn  him,  they  should  condemn  Washington  also. 
Perhaps  his  failure  has  had  most  to  do  with  his  con- 
demnation. Success  justifies,  failure  condemns,  most 
revolutions  in  most  men's  eyes.  But  if  ever  a  revolu- 
tion was  excusable  this  was  ;  for  it  was  carried  not  by  a 
small  party  for  small  aims,  but  by  national  acclamation, 
by  the  voices  of  Italians  who  flocked  to  Rome  to  vote. 
How  far  Gracchus  saw  the  inevitable  effect  of  his  acts  is 
open  to  dispute.  But  probably  he  saw  it  as  clearly  as 
any  man  can  see  the  future.  Because  he 
was  generous  and  enthusiastic,  it  is  assumed  StTwelk 
that  he  was  sentimental  and  weak,  and  that  Ifi"?"16111" 
his  policy  was  guided  by  impulse  rather 
than  reason.  There  seems  little  to  sustain  such  a  judg- 
ment other  than  the  desire  of  writers  to  emphasize  a 
comparison  between  him  and  his  brother.  If  his  cha- 
racter had  been  what  some  say  that  it  was,  his  speeches 
would  hardly  have  been  described  by  Cicero  as  acute 
and  sensible,  but  not  rhetorical  enough.  All  his  conduct 
was  consistent.  He  strove  hard  and  to  the  last  to  pro- 
cure his  end  by  peaceable  means.  Driven  into  a  corner 
by  the  tactics  of  his  opponents,  he  broke  through  the 
constitution,  and,  once  having  done  so,  went  the  way  on 
which  his  acts  led  him,  without  turning  to  the  right 
hand  or  the  left.  There  seems  to  be  not  a  sign  of  his 
having  drifted  into  revolution.  Because  a  portrait  is 
drawn  in  neutral  tints,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  is  there- 
fore faithful,  and  those  writers  who  seem  to  think  they 
must  reconcile  the  fact  of  Tiberius  having  been  so  good 
a  man  with  his  having  been,  as  they  assert,  so  bad  a 
citizen,  have  blurred  the  likeness  in  their  anxiety  about 
the  chiaroscuro.  No  one  would  affirm  that  Tiberius 
committed  no  errors ;  but  that  he  was  a  wise  as  well  as 

D 


34  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.    3.0.133. 

a  good  man  is  far  more  in  accordance  with  the  facts 
than  a  more  qualified  verdict  would  be. 

The  Senate    showed  its  spite   against  the   successful 

Tribune  by  petty  annoyances,  such  as  allowing  him  only 

about  a  shilling  a  day  for  his  official  expen- 

behaviour          diture,  and,  as  rumour  said,  by  the  assassi- 

gf  th®  nation  of  one  of  his  friends.    But,  while  men 

ocnatc. 

like  P.  Scipio  Nasica  busied  themselves  with 
such  miserable  tactics,  Tiberius  brought  forward  another 
great  proposal  supplementary  to  his  agrarian  law.  At- 
Pro  osalof  talus»  t^ie  last  king  of  Pergamus,  had  just 
Gracchus  died,  and  left  his  kingdom  to  Rome.  Grac- 

the  legacy  chus  wished  to  divide  his  treasures  among 
of  Attaius.  the  new  settierSj  an(j  expressed  some  other 
intention  of  transferring  the  settlement  of  the  country 
from  the  Senate  to  the  people.  As  to  the  second  of 
these  propositions  it  would  be  unsafe  as  well  as  unfair  to 
Gracchus  to  pronounce  judgment  on  it  without  a  know- 
ledge of  its  details.  The  first  was  both  just  and  wise 
and  necessary,  for  previous  experience  had  shown  that 
the  first  temptation  of  a  pauper  land-owner  was  to  sell 
his  land  to  the  rich,  and,  as  the  law  of  Gracchus  forbade 
this,  he  was  bound  to  give  the  settler  a  fair  start  on  his 
farm.  The  Senate  took  fresh  alarm,  and  it  found  vent 
again  in  characteristically  mean  devices.  One  senator 
said  that  a  diadem  and  a  purple  robe  had  been  brought 

to  Gracchus  from  Pergamus.  Another  as- 
Retort  of  sailed  him  because  men  with  torches  es- 

tue  benate. 

corted  him  home  at  night.  Another  twitted 
him  with  the  deposition  of  Octavius.  To  this  last  attack, 
less  contemptible  than  the  others,  he  replied  in  a  bold 
and  able  speech,  which  practically  asserted  that  the 
spirit  of  the  constitution  was  binding  on  a  citizen,  but 
that  its  letter  under  some  circumstances  was  not. 


B.c.  133'  Tiberius  Gracchus.  35 

He  was  also  engaged  in  meditating  other  important 
reforms,  all  directed   against  the   Senate's 
power.     Plutarch  says  that  they  comprised         tended  ro. 
abridgment  of  the  soldier's  term  of  service,         Gracchis. 
an  appeal  to  the  people  from  the  judices, 
and  the  equal  partition  between  the  Senate  and  equites 
of  the  privilege  of  serving  as  judices,  which  hitherto  be- 
longed only  to  the  former.     According  to  Velleius,  Tibe- 
rius also  promised  the  franchise  to  all  Italians  south  of 
the  Rubicon  and  the  Macra,  which,  if  true,  is  another 
proof  of  his  far-seeing  statesmanship.    To  carry  out  such 
extensive  changes  it  was  necessary  to  procure  prolonga- 
tion of  office  for  himself,  and  he  became  a 
candidate  for  the  next  year  s  tribunate.     To      SJSJ"1* 
say  that  considerations  of  personal  safety      Jg^rrff 
dictated  his  candidature  is  a  very  easy  and      bunate. 

His  motives. 

specious  insinuation,  but  is  nothing  more. 
It  is  indeed  a  good  deal  less,  for  it  is  utterly  inconsistent 
with  the  other  acts  of  an  unselfish,  dauntless  career. 
At  election-time  the  first  two  tribes  voted  for  Tiberius. 
Then  the  aristocracy  declared  his  candidature  to  be  ille- 
gal because  he  could  not  hold  office  two  years  running. 
It  may  have  been  so,  or  the  law  may  have  been  so  vio- 
lated as  to  be  no  more  valid  than  the  Licinian  law, 
which,  though  never  abrogated,  had  never  much  force. 
To  fasten  on  some  technical  flaw  in  his  procedure  was 
precisely  in  keeping  with  the  rest  of  the  acts  of  the  op- 
position. But  those  writers  who  accuse  Tiberius  of  being 
guilty  of  another  illegal  act  in  standing  fail 
to  observe  the  force  of  the  fact,  that  it  was 
not  till  the  first  two  tribes  had  voted  that  the 
aristocracy  interfered.  This  shows  that  their  objection 
was  a  last  resort  to  an  invalid  statute,  and  a  deed  of 
which  they  were  themselves  ashamed.  However,  the 


36  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.    6.0.133. 

president  of  the  tribunes,  Rubrius,  hesitated  to  let  the 
other  tribes  vote ;  and  when  Mummius,  Octavius's  sub- 
stitute, asked  Rubrius  to  yield  to  him  the  presidency, 
others  objected  that  the  post  must  be  filled  by  lot,  and 
so  the  election  was  adjourned  till  the  next  day. 

It  was  clear  enough  to  what  end  things  were  tending, 
and  Tiberius,  putting  on  mourning,  committed  his  young 
son  to  the  protection  of  the  people.  It  need  hardly  be 
said  that  the  father's  affection  and  the  statesman's  bitter 
dismay  at  finding  the  dearest  object  of  his  life  about  to 
be  snatched  from  him  by  violence  need  not  have  been 
tinged  with  one  particle  of  personal  fear.  A  man  of  tried 
bravery  like  Gracchus  might  guard  his  own  life  indeed, 
but  only  as  he  regarded  it  as  indispensable  to  a  great 
cause.  That  evening  he  told  his  partisans  he  would 
give  them  a  sign  next  day  if  he  should  think  it  necessary 
to  use  force  at  his  election.  It  has  been  assumed  that 
this  proves  he  was  meditating  treason.  But  it  proves  no 
more  than  that  he  meant  to  repel  force  forcibly  if,  as  was 
only  too  certain,  force  should  be  used,  and  this  is  not 
treason.  No  other  course  was  open  to  him.  The  one 
weak  spot  in  his  policy  was  that  he  had  no  material 
strength  at  his  back.  Even  Sulla  would  have  been  a 
lost  man  at  a  later  time,  if  he  had  not  had  an  army 
at  hand  to  which  he  could  flee  for  refuge,  just  as  without 
the  army  Cromwell  would  have  been  powerless.  But  it 
was  harvest-time  now,  and  the  Italian  allies  of  Gracchus 
Were  away  from  home  in  the  fields.  The  next  day 
dawned,  and  with  it  occurred  omens  full  of  meaning  to 
the  superstitious  Romans.  The  sacred  fowls  would  not 
feed.  Tiberius  stumbled  at  the  doorway  of  his  house 
and  broke  the  nail  of  his  great  toe.  Some  crows  fought 
on  the  roof  of  a  house  on  the  left  hand,  and  one  dis- 
lodged a  tile,  which  fell  at  his  feet.  But  Blossius  was 


B.C.  133.  Tiberius  Gracchus.  37 

at   his   side   encouraging    him,   and   Grac-         Murder  o! 

Gracchus. 

chus    went    on    to   the    Capitol    and    was 

greeted  with   a  great  cheer  by  his  partisans.     Appian 

says  that  when  the  rich  would  not  allow  the        _._ 

*  Different 

election  to  proceed.  Tiberius  gave  the  sig-  accounts 
nal.  Plutarch  tells  as  that  Fulvius  Flaccus  AppTan^nd 
came  and  told  him  that  his  foes  had  re-  Autarch, 
solved  to  slay  him,  and,  having  failed  to  induce  the  con- 
sul Scaevola  to  act,  were  arming  their  friends  and  slaves, 
and  that  Gracchus  gave  the  signal  then.  As  Appian 
agrees  with  Plutarch  in  his  account  of  Nasica's  conduct 
in  the  Senate,  the  last  is  the  more  probable  version  of 
what  occurped.  Nasica  called  on  Scaevola  to  put  down 
the  tyrant.  Scaevola  replied  that  he  would  not  be  the 
first  to  use  force.  Then  Nasica,  calling  on  the  senators 
to  follow  him,  mounted  the  Capitol  to  a  position  above 
that  of  Gracchus.  Arming  themselves  with  clubs  and 
legs  of  benches,  his  followers  charged  down  and  dis- 
persed the  crowd.  Gracchus  stumbled  over  some  pros- 
trate bodies,  and  was  slain  either  by  a  blow  from  P. 
Satyreius,  a  fellow-tribune,  or  from  L.  Rufus,  for  both 
claimed  the  distinction.  So  died  a  genuine  patriot  and 
martyr — the  Gauvain  of  the  Roman  Revolution;  and  so 
foul  a  murder  fitly  heralded  the  long  years  of  bloodshed 
and  violence  which  were  in  store  for  the  country  which 
he  died  to  save. 


CHAPTER  III. 

CAIUS     GRACCHUS. 

OVER  three  hundred  of  the  people  were  killed  and 
thrown  into  the  Tiber,  and  the  aristocracy  followed  up 


38  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  HI. 

their   triumph   as    harshly   as    they   dared. 

Revenge  ^^    banisheci     some)    an(i    slew     Others    of 

aristocracy.  faQ  tribune's  partisans.  Plutarch  says  that 
they  fastened  up  one  in  a  chest  with  vipers.  When 
Blossius  was  brought  before  his  judges  he  avowed  that  he 
would  have  burned  the  Capitol  if  Gracchus  had  told  him 
to  do  it,  so  confident  was  he  in  his  leader's  patriotism — 
an  answer  testifying  not  only  to  the  nobleness  of  the  two 
friends,  but  to  the  strong  character  of  one  of  them.  Phi- 
losophers are  not  so  impressed  by  weak,  impulsive  men. 
Blossius  was  spared,  probably  because  he  had  connec- 
tions with  some  of  the  nobles  rather  than  because  his 
reply  inspired  respect.  But  while  the  aristocracy  was* 
making  war  on  individuals,  the  work  of  the  dead  man 
went  on,  as  if  even  from  the  grave  he  was  destined  to 
bring  into  sharper  relief  the  pettiness  of  their  projects  by 
the  grandeur  of  his  own. 

The  allotment  of  land  was  vigorously  carried  out ; 
and  when   Appius    Claudius   and   Mucianus   died,   the 
commissioners  were  partisans  of  Tiberius  — 
Gracchus  his  brother  Caius,  M.  Fulvius   Flaccus,  and 

remains  in         c>  papirius  Carbo.    In  the  year  125,  insteal 
of  another  decrease  in  the  able-bodied  pop- 
ulation, we  find  an  increase  of  nearly  80,000.     It  seems 
probable    that   this   increase  was   solely   in 
fidaf  effects       consequence  of  what  the  allotment  commis- 
sioners did  for  the  Roman  burgesses.     Nor, 
if  the  Proletarii  and  Capite  Censi  were  not  included  in 
the  register  of  those  classed  for  military  service,  is  the 
increase  remarkable,  for  it  would  be  to  members  of  those 
classes  that  the  allotments  would  be  chiefly  assigned. 
Moreover,  the  poor  whom  the  rich  expelled  from  their 
lands  did  not  give  in  their  names  to  the  censors,  and  did 
not  attend  to  the  education  of  their  children.  These  men 


CH.  in.  Cains  Gracchus. 


39 


would,  on  receiving  allotment,  enroll  themselves.  The 
consul  of  the  year  132  inscribed  on  a  public  monument 
that  he  was  the  first  who  had  turned  che  shepherds  out 
of  the  domains,  and  installed  farmers  in  their  stead  ; 
and  these  farmers  became,  as  Gracchus  intended,  a 
strong  reinforcement  to  the  Roman  soldier-class,  as  well 
as  a  check  to  slave  labour*  What  was  done  at  Rome  was 
done  also,  it  is  said,  throughout  Italy,  and  if  on  the  same 
scale,  it  must  have  been  a  really  enormous  measure  of 
relief  to  the  poor,  and  a  vast  stride  towards  a  return  to  a 
healthier  tenure  of  the  land.  But  it  is  not 
hard  to  imagine  what  Jieart-burnings  the  ?n?hald-S 
commissioners  must  have  aroused./  Some  rhip.s  '"  en" 

torcing  it. 

men  were  thrust  out  of  tilled  land  on  to 
waste  land.  Some  who  thought  that  their  property  was 
private  property  found  to  their  cost  that  it  was  the  State's. 
Some  had  encroached,  and  their  encroachments  were 
now  exposed.  Some  of  the  Socii  had  bought  parcels  of 
the  land,  and  found  out  now  that  they  had  no  title. 
Lastly,  some  land  had  been  by  special  decrees  assigned 
to  individual  states,  and  the  commissioners  at  length 
proceeded  to  stretch  out  their  hands  towards  it. 

Historians,  while  recording  such  things,  have  failed  to 
explain  why  the  chief  opposition  to  the  commissioners 
arose  from  the  Italians  who  had  been  the  chief  sup- 
porters of  Tiberius,  and  what  was  the  exact  attitude 
assumed  by  Scipio  ^milianus.  It  is  lost  sight  of  that  as 
at  Rome  there  were  two  classes,  so  there  were  two  class- 
es in  Italy.  It  is  absurd  constantly  to  put  prominently 
forward  the  sharp  division  of  interests  in  the  capital,  and 
then  speak  of  the  Kalians  as  if  they  were  all  one  body, 
and  their  interests  the  same.  The  natural  and  apparent- 
ly the  only  way  of  explaining  what  at  first  sight  seems 
the  inconsistency  of  the  Italians  is  to  conclude,  that 


40  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  in. 

the  men  who  supported  Tiberius  were  the 

Divisions  J 

in  Italy  poor  of  the  Italian  towns  and  the  small  farm- 

35»e  in°  ers  °f  the  country,  while  the  men  who  called 

Rome.  on  scipio  to  save  them  from  the  commission- 

ers were  the  capitalists  of  the  towns  and  the  rich  farmers, 
with  their  forces  swollen,  it  may  be,  by  not  a  few  who, 
having  clamoured  for  more  land,  found  now  that  the 
title  to  what  they  already  had  was  called  in  question. 
Though  this  cannot  be  stated  as  a  certainty,  it  at  least 
accounts  for  what  historians,  after  many  pages  on  the 
subject,  have  left  absolutely  unexplained,  and  it  presents 
the  conduct  of  Scipio  ^Emilianus  in  quite  a  different 
light  from  the  one  in  which  it  has  commonly  been  re- 
garded. He  is  usually  extolled  as  a  patriot  who  would 
not  stir  to  humour  a  Roman  rabble,  but  who,  when  down- 
trodden honest  farmers,  his  comrades  in  the  wars,  ap- 
pealed to  him,  at  once  stepped  into  the  arena  as  their 
champion.  In  reality  he  was  a  reactionist  who,  when  the 
...  .  ,  r  inevitable  results  of  those  liberal  ideas 

Attitude  ol 

Scipio  which  had  been  broached  in  his  own  circle 

^Emilianus.  ,  .  .        .         ...  ,     .        ., 

stared  him  in  the  face,  seized  the  first  avail- 
able means  of  stifling  them.  The  world  had  moved 
too  fast  for  him.  As  censor,  instead  of  beseeching  the 
gods  to  increase  the  glory  of  the  State,  he  begged  them 
to  preserve  it.  And  no  doubt  he  would  have  greatly 
preferred  that  the  gods  should  act  without  his  interven- 
tion. Brave  as  a  man,  he  was  a  pusillanimous  states- 
man ;  and  when  confronted  by  the  revolutionary  spirit 
which  he  and  his  friends  had  helped  to  evoke,  he  deter- 
mined at  all  costs  to  prop  up  the  senatorial 
popularity  power.  But  the  Senate  hated  him,  partly 
Senate16  as  a  trimmer,  and  partly  because  by  his 

personal  character  he  rebuked  their  base- 
ness.    He  had  just  impeached  Aurelius  Cotta,  a  senator, 


CH.III.  Caius  Gracchus.  41 

and  the  judices,  from  spite  against  him,  had  refused  to 
convict.  So  he  turned  to  the  Italian  land-owners,  and 
became  the  mouth-piece  of  their  selfishness,  for  a  selfish 
or  at  best  a  narrow-minded  end.  The  nobles  must 
have,  at  heart,  disliked  his  allies  ;  but  they  cheered  him 
in  the  Senate,  and  he  succeeded  in  practically  strangling 
the  commission  by  procuring  the  transfer  of  its  jurisdic- 
tion to  the  consuls.  The  consul  for  the  time  being  im- 
mediately found  a  pretext  for  leaving  Rome,  and  a  short 
time  afterwards  Scipio  was  found  one  morning  dead  in 
his  bed.  He  had  gpne  to  his  chamber  the 
night  before  to  think  over  what  he  should 
say  next  day  to  the  people  about  the  position  of  the 
Italians,  and,  if  he  was  murdered,  it  is  almost  as  proba- 
ble that  he  was  murdered  by  some  rancorous  foe  in  the 
Senate  as  by  Carbo  or  any  other  Gracchan.  It  was  well 
for  his  reputation  that  he  died  just  then.  Without  Sul- 
la's personal  vices  he  might  have  played  Sulla's  part  as 
a  politician,  and  his  atrocities  in  Spain  as  well  as  his  re- 
mark on  the  death  of  Tiberius  Gracchus — words  breath- 
ing the  very  essence  of  a  narrow  swordsman's  nature — • 
showed  that  from  bloodshed  at  all  events  he  would  not 
have  shrunk.  It  is  hard  to  respect  such  a  man  in  spite 
of  all  his  good  qualities.  Fortune  gave  him  the  oppor- 
tunity of  playing  a  great  part,  and  he  shrank  from  it. 
When  the  crop  sprang  up  which  he  had  himself  helped 
to  sow,  he  blighted  it.  But  because  he  was  personally 
respectable,  and  because  he  held  a  middle  course  be- 
tween contemporary  parties,  he  has  found  favour  with 
historians,  who  are  too  apt  to  forget  that  there  is  in  poli- 
tics, as  in  other  things,  a  right  course  and  a  wrong,  and 
that  to  attempt  to  walk  along  both  at  once  proves  a  man 
to  be  a  weak  statesman,  and  does  not  prove  him  to  be  a 
great  or  good  man. 


42  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  in. 

In  B.  C.  126  Caius  Gracchus,  seven  years  after  he  had 
been  made  one  of  the  commissioners  for  the  allotment 
of  public  land,  was  elected  quaestor.  Sardinia  was  at  that 
time  in  rebellion,  and  it  fell  by  lot  to  Caius  to  go  there  as 
quaestor  to  the  consul  Orestes.  It  is  said  that 
career  0*1 Y  he  kept  quiet  when  Tiberius  was  killed,  and 
Gracchus  intended  to  steer  clear  of  politics.  But  one 
of  those  splendid  bursts  of  oratory,  with 
which  he  had  already  electrified  the  people,  remains  to 
show  over  what  he  was  for  ever  brooding.  "  They  slew 
him,"  he  cried,  "  these  scoundrels  slew  Tiberius,  my 
noble  brother!  Ah  !  they  are  all  of  one  pattern."  He 
said  this  in  advocating  the  Lex  Papiria,  which  proposed 
to  make  the  re-election  of  a  tribune  legal.  But  Scipio 
opposed  the  law,  and  it  was  defeated  then,  to  be  carried, 
however,  a  few  years  later.  Again,  in  the  year  of  his 
qusestorship,  he  spoke  against  the  law  of  M.  Junius  Pen- 
nus,  which  aimed  at  expelling  all  Peregrini  from  Rome- 
They  were  the  very  men  by  whose  help  Tiberius  had  car- 
ried his  agrarian  law,  and  when  Caius  spoke  for  them 
he  was  clearly  treading  in  his  brother's  steps.  At  a 
later  time  he  declared  that  he  dreamt  Tiberius  came  to 
him  and  said,  "  Why  do  you  hesitate  ?  You  cannot 
escape  your  doom  and  mine — to  live  for  the  people  and 
die  for  them."  Such  a  story  would  be  effective  in  a 
speech,  and  particularly  effective  when  told  to  a  super- 
stitious audience ;  but  his  day-dreams  we  may  be  sure 
were  the  cause  and  not  the  consequence  of  his  visions 
of  the  night.  For  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  young- 
er brother  had  already  one  purpose  and  only  one — 
to  avenge  the  death  of  Tiberius  and  carry  out  his  de- 
signs. 

Such  omens  as  Roman  credulity  fastened  on  when  the 
political  air  was  heavy  with  coming  storm  abounded 


CH.III.  Caius  Gracchus.  43 

now.  With  grave  irony  the  historian  records  :  "  Besides 
showers  of  oil  and  milk  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Veii,  a 
fact  of  which  some  people  may  doubt,  an  owl,  it  is  said, 
was  seen  on  the  Capitol,  which  may  have  been  true.'' 
Fulvius  Flaccus,  the  friend  of  Gracchus,  made  the  first 
move.  In  order  to  buy  off  the  opposition  of  the  Socii  to 
the  agrarian  law,  he  proposed  to  give  them 

Proposition 

the  franchise,  just  as  Licinius,  when  he  had        of  Fulvius 
offered  the  poor  plebeians  a  material  boon,        its^gnifi- 
offered  the  rich  ones  a  political  one,  so  as  to 
secure  the  united  support  of  the  whole  body.     The  pro- 
posal was  significant,  and  it  was  made  at  a  critical  time. 
The  poor  Italians  were  chafing,  no  doubt,  at  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  agrarian  law.     The  rich  were  indignant  at 
the  carrying  of  the  law  of  Pennus      Other  and  deeper 
causes  of  irritation  have  been  mentioned  above.     In  the 
year  of  the  proposal  of  Flaccus,  and  very  likely  in  con- 
sequence of  its  rejection,  Fregellae — a  Latin      R     1 
colony  —  revolted.      The   revolt   was   pun-      punishment 

•   t_     j       •  i       i       c  c  •  T^I  °f  Fregellae. 

ished  with  the  ferocity  of  panic.     The  town 
was    destroyed ;    a    Roman     colony,    Fabrateria,    was 
planted  near  its  site  ;  and  for  the  moment   Italian  dis- 
content was  awed  into  sullen   silence.     No  wonder  the 
Senate  was  panic-stricken.     Here  was  a  real  omen,  not 
conjured  up  by  superstition,  that  one  of  those  towns, 
which  through  Rome's  darkest  fortunes  in  the  second 
Punic  War  had  remained  faithful  to  her,  should  single- 
handed  and  in  time  of  peace  raise  the  standard  of  re- 
bellion.     Was  FregelliE   indeed   single-handed?     The 
Senate  suspected  not,  and  turned  furiously  on  the  Grac- 
chan  party,  and,  it  is  alleged,   accused  Caius  of  com- 
plicity with  the  revolt.     It  was  rash  provoca-         Caius 
tion  to  give  to  such  a  man  at  such  a  time.         Gnu-chus 
If  he  was  accused,  he  was  acquitted,  and  he         treason.  ° 


44  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  in. 

He  stands  for    at  once  stood  for  the  tribunate.     Thus  the 

the  tribunate.  . 

party  which  had  slam  his  brother  found 
itself  again  at  death-grips  with  an  even  abler  and  more 
implacable  foe. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  for  some  time  past  Caius  Grac- 
chus, young  as  he  was,  and  having  as  yet  filled  none 
of  the  regular  high  offices,  had  had  the  first  place  in  all 
men's  thoughts.  His  first  speech  had  been  received  by 
the  people  with  wild  delight.  He  was  already  the  great- 
est orator  in  Rome.  His  importance  is 
of  Gracchus  shown  by  the  Senate's  actually  prolonging 
ab££deand  the  consul's  command,  in  order  to  keep  his 
quaestor  longer  abroad.  But  his  friends  were 
consoled  for  his  absence  by  the  stories  they  heard  of  the 
respect  shown  to  him  by  foreign  nations.  The  Sardi- 
nians would  not  grant  supplies  to  Orestes,  and  the  Senate 
approved  their  refusal.  But  Gracchus  interposed,  and 
they  voluntarily  gave  what  they  had  before  appealed 
against.  Micipsa,  son  of  Masinissa,  also  sent  corn  to 
Orestes,  but  averred  that  it  was  out  of  respect  to 
Gracchus.  The  Senate's  fears  and  the  esteem  of  foreign- 
ers were  equally  just.  What  the  life  of  Gracchus  was  in 
Sardinia  he  has  himself  told  us  ;  and  from  the  implied 
contrast  we  may  judge  what  was  the  life  of  the  nobles  of 
the  time.  "My  life/'  he  said  to  the  people,  "in  the  pro- 
vince was  not  planned  to  suit  my  ambition,  but  your 
interests.  There  was  no  gormandizing  with 
tio'n  of theP~  me»  no  handsome  slaves  in  waiting,  and  at 
nobief  a  mv  ta^e  y°ur  sons  saw  more  seemliness 

than  at  head-quarters.  No  man  can  say 
without  lying  that  I  ever  took  a  farthing  as  a  present  or 
put  anyone  to  expense.  I  was  there  two  years ;  and  if  a 
single  courtesan  ever  crossed  my  doors,  or  if  proposals 
from  me  were  ever  made  to  anyone's  slave-pet,  set  me 


CH.  in.  Caius  Gracchus.  45 

down  for  the  vilest  and  most  infamous  of  men.  And  if 
I  was  so  scrupulous  towards  slaves,  you  may  judge  what 
my  life  must  have  been  with  your  sons.  And,  citizens, 
here  is  the  fruit  of  such  a  life.  I  left  Rome  with  a  full 
purse  and  have  brought  it  back  empty.  Others  took  out 
their  wine  jars  full  of  wine,  and  brought  them  back  full 
of  money.'' 

Such  was  the  man  who  now  came  back  to  Rome  to 
demand  from  the  aristocracy  a  reckoning  for  which  he 
had  been  yearning  with  undying  passion  for  nearly  ten 
years.  An  exaggerated  contrast  between  him  and  Tibe- 
rius at  the  expense  of  the  latter  has  been  previously 
condemned.  The  man  who  originates  is  always  so  far 
greater  than  the  man  who  imitates,  and  Caius  only  fol- 
lowed where  his  brother  led.  He  was  not  greater  than 
but  only  like  his  brother  in  his  bravery,  in  his  culture,  in 
the  faculty  of  inspiring  in  his  friends  strong  enthusiasm 
and  devotion,  in  his  unswerving  pursuit  of  a  definite  ob- 
ject, and,  as  his  sending  the  son  of  Fulvius  Flaccus  to 
the  Senate  just  before  his  death  proves  in  the  teeth  of  all 
assertions  to  the  contrary,  in  his  willingness  to  use  his 
personal  influence  in  order  to  avoid  civil  bloodshed. 
The  very  dream  which  Caius  told  to  the  people  shows 
that  his  brother's  spell  was  still  on  him,  and  his  telling 
it,  together  with  his  impetuous  oratory  and  his  avowed 
fatalism,  militates  against  the  theory  that  Tiberius  was 
swayed  by  impulse  and  sentiment,  and  he  by  calcula- 
tion and  reason.  But  no  doubt  he  profited 

i  •  f    i  TT      i       i  i  j          Cams  corn- 

by  experience  of  the  past.     He  had  learned        pared  wim 

how  to  bide  his  time,  and  to  think  generosity 
wasted  on  the  murderous  crew  whom  he  had  sworn  to 
punish.     Pure  in  life,  perfectly  prepared  for  a  death  to 
which  he  considered  himself  foredoomed,  glowing  with 
one  fervent  passion,  he  took  up  his  brother's  cause  with 


46  The  Gracchiy  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  in. 

a  double  portion  of  his  brother's  spirit,  because  he  had 
thought  more  before  action,  because  he  had  greater 
natural  eloquence,  and  because  being  forewarned  he 
was  forearmed. 

In  spite  of  the  labours  of  recent  historians,  the  legis- 
lation of  Caius  Gracchus  is  still  hard  to  understand. 
Whe^e  the  original  authorities  contradict  each  other,  as 
they  often  do,  probable  conjecture  is  the  most  which 
can  be  attained,  and  no  attempt  will  be  made  here  to 
specify  what  were  the  measures  of  the  first  tribunate  of 
Caius  and  what  of  the  second.  The  general 

The  general 

purport  of  scope  and  tendency  of  his  legislation  is  clear 
tionof152  enough.  It  was  to  overthrow  the  senatorial 
government,  and  in  the  new  government 
to  give  the  chief  share  of  the  executive  power  to  the 
mercantile  class,  and  the  chief  share  of  the  legislative 
power  to  Italians.  These  were  his  immediate  aims. 
Probably  he  meant  to  keep  all  the  strings  he  thus  set  in 
motion  in  his  own  hands,  so  as  to  be  practically  monarch 
of  Rome.  But  whether  he  definitely  conceived  the  idea 
of  monarchy,  and,  looking  beyond  his  own  requirements, 
pictured  to  himself  a  successor  at  some  future  time  in- 
heriting the  authority  which  he  had  established,  no  one 
can  say.  In  such  vast  schemes  there  must  have  been 
much  that  was  merely  tentative.  But  had  he  lived  and 
retained  his  influence  we  may  be  sure  that  the  Empire 
would  have  been  established  a  century  earlier  than  it  was. 
Rome  was  thronged  to  overflowing  by  Italians,  and 
the  nobles  strained  every  nerve  in  opposition  when 
Caius  was  elected  tribune.  He  was  only  fourth  on  the 
Date  of  the  ^st  out  °^  ten»  an(^  entered  on  his  office  on 
tribunate  December  10,  B.  c.  124.  With  a  fixed  pre- 

ofCams.  * 

December  sentiment  of  his  own  fate,  he  felt  that,  even 
10,  B.  124.  .^.  ^  wishe(j  to  remain  passive,  the  people 


CH.  in.  Caius  Gracchus.  47 

would  not  permit  him  to  be  so.  He  might,  he  said, 
have  pleaded  that  he  and  his  young  child  were  the  last 
representatives  of  a  noble  line — of  P.  Africanus  and 
Tiberius  Gracchus — and  that  he  had  lost  a  brother  in 
the  people's  cause ;  but  the  people  would  not  have 
listened  to  the  plea.  It  has  been  said  that  his  mother 
dissuaded  him  from  his  intentions.  But  the  fragments 
on  which  the  statement  is  based  are  as  likely  as  not 
spurious  ;  and  Cornelia's  fortitude  after  she  had  lost  both 
her  sons  would  have  been  shown  by  one  capable  of 
subordinating  public  to  private  interests.  It  is  far  more 
likely  that  when  in  his  stirring  speeches  he  spoke  of  his 
home  as  no  place  for  him  to  visit,  while  his 

Story  of  his 

mother  was  weeping  and  in  despair,  he  was      mother's 

.     a  j  i       i  j  •  i  •  sentiments. 

influenced  by  her  adjurations  to  avenge  his 
brother,  and  not  by  any  craven  warnings  against  sharing 
his  fate.  However  this  may  have  been,  no  timid  influ- 
ences could  be  traced  in  the  fiery  passion  of  his  first 
speeches.  He  was,  in  fact,  so  carried  away  by  his  feel- 
ings that  he  had  to  resort  to  a  curious  device  in  order  to 
keep  his  voice  under  control,  A  man  with  Story  of  the 
a  musical  instrument  used,  it  is  said,  to  "V:?1!?  fy 

which  he 

stand  near  him,  and  warn  him  by  a  note  at      modulated 
times  if  he  was  pitching  his  voice  too  high      when°1C< 
or  too  low.     It  was  now  that  he  told  his      sPeakins- 
stories  of  the  flogging  of  the  magistrate  of  Teanum  and 
the   murder  of  the  Venusian   herdsman,  and  we   can 
imagine  how  they  would  incense  his  hearers  against  the 
nobles.      Against  one  ot  them,  Octavius,   he   specially 
directed  a  law,  making  it  illegal  for  any  magistrate  pre- 
viously deposed  by  the  people  to  be  elected  to  office ; 
but  this,  at  Cornelia's  suggestion  it  is  said,  he  withdrew. 
Another  law  also  had  special  reference  to  the  fate  of 
Tiberius.     It  made  illegal  the  trial  of  any  citizen  for  an 


48  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.  '     CH.  in, 

offence  which  involved  the  loss  of  his  civic  rights  without 
the  consent  of  the  people.  This  law,  if  in  force,  would 
have  prevented  the  ferocity  with  which  Popillius  Laenas 
hunted  down  the  partisans  of  Tiberius ;  and  Caius  fol- 


lowed  it   up  according   to  the  oration  De 

Cams  ««•«- 
cures  t 
banishment 


5  pro-  .  ° 

the  Domo,  by  procuring  against  Popillius  a  sen- 

ofUpopnTius  tence  of  outlawry.  One  of  the  fragments 
Laenas.  from  his  speeches  was  probably  spoken  at 

this  time.  In  it  he  told  the  people  that  they  now  had 
the  chance  they  had  so  long  and  so  passionately  de- 
sired ;  and  that,  if  they  did  not  avail  themselves  of  it, 
they  would  lay  themselves  open  to  the  charge  of  caprice 
or  of  ungoverned  temper.  Popillius  anticipated  the 
sentence  by  voluntary  retirement  from  Rome. 

Having  satisfied  his  conscience  by  the  performance  of 
what  no  doubt  seemed  to  him  sacred  duties,  Caius  at 
once  set  to  work  to  build  up  his  new  constitution.  It  is 
commonly  represented  that  in  order  to  gain  over  the 
people  to  his  side  he  cynically  bribed  them 
His  Lex  by  hjs  Lex  Frumentaria.  Now  if  this  were 

Frumentana.  * 

true,  and  Caius  were  as  clear-sighted  as  the 
same  writers  who  insist  on  the  badness  of  the  law  de- 
scribe him  to  have  been,  it  is  hard  to  see  how  they  can 
in  the  same  breath  eulogize  his  goodness  and  nobleness. 
To  gain  his  ends  he  would  have  been  using  vile  means, 
and  would  have  been  a  vile  man.  Looking,  however, 
more  closely  into  the  law,  we  are  led  to  doubt  whether  it 

was  bad,  or,  at  all  events,  even  granting 
mon  ?r°™~  that  eventually  it  led  to  evil,  whether  it 
itCunjusT  would  have  appeared  likely  to  do  so  to 

Caius.  The  public  land,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, Was  liable  to  an  impost  called  vectigal  (p.  6). 
This  vectigal  went  into  the  ^rarium,  which  the  nobles 
had  at  their  disposal.  Now  the  law  of  Caius  appears  to 


CH.  in.  Caius  Gracchus.  49 

have  fixed  a  nominal  price  for  corn  to  all  Roman  citi 
zens,  and  if  the  market  price  was  above  this  price  the 
difference  would  have  to  be  made  good  from  the  ^ra- 
rium.  We  at  once  see  the  object  of  Caius,  and  how  the 
justice  of  it  might  have  blinded  him  to  the  demoralizing 
effects  of  his  measure.  "  The  public  land/'  he  said  in 
effect,  "  belcrgr  to  all  Romans  and  so  does  the  vectigal. 
If  you  take  that  to  which  you  have  no  right,  you  shall 
give  it  back  again  in  cheap  corn."  In  short,  it  was  a 
clever  device  for  papally  neutralizing  the  long  misap- 
propriation of  the  State's  property  by  the  nobles,  and  for 
giving  to  the  people  what  belonged  to  the  people — to  each 
man,  as  it  were,  uJ  many  ears  of  corn  from  whatever  frac- 
tion would  be  his  own  share  of  the  land.  When  Drusus 
was  afterwards  set  up  'iu  outbid  Caius,  he  proposed  that 
the  vectigal  should  be  remitted,  and  that  the  land  that 
had  been  assigned  might  be  sold  by  the  occupier.  How 
this  would  catch  t^e  iarmer's  fancy  is  as  contrast 
obvious  as  its  odious  dishonesty.  It  was  between  the 

just  propo- 

dishonest  to  the  State  because  it  was  only  sal  of  Caiu* 
fair  that  each  occupier  should  contribute  to  demagogy 
its  funds,  and  because  it  did  away  with  the  of  Drusus- 
hope  of  filling  Italy  with  free  husbandmen.  It  was  dis- 
honest to  the  occupier  himself,  because  it  put  in  his  way 
the  worst  temptation  to  unthriftiness.  When  Caius  re- 
newed his  brother's  laws  he  purposely  charged  the  land 
distributed  to  the  poor  with  a  yearly  vectigal.  How  dif- 
ferent was  this  from  the  mere  demagogic  trick  of  Drusus! 
It  appears,  then,  that  the  Lex  Frumentaria  of  Caius  is 
not  the  indefensible  measure  which  modern  writers, 
filled  with  modern  notions,  have  called  it.  It  has, 
moreover,  been  well  said  that  it  was  a  kind  of  poor- 
law  ;  and,  even  if  bad  in  itself,  may  have  been  the  least 
bad  remedy  for  the  pauperism  which  not  Caius,  but 


50  The  Grace  hi y  Marius^  and  Sulla.       CH.  in. 

senatorial  misgovernment  had  brought  about.  No 
doubt  it  conferred  popularity  on  Caius,  and  no  doubt 
his  popularity  was  acceptable  to  him ;  but  there  is  no 
ground  for  believing  that  his  noble  nature  deliberately 
stooped  to  demoralize  the  mob  for  selfish  motives. 

One  great  party,  however,  he  had  thus  won  over  to  his 

side.     The  Lex  Judiciaria  gained  over  the  equites  also. 

It  has  been  before  explained  that  the  equites 

P1!.1^*.  at  this  time  were  non-senatorial  rich  men. 

Judiciana. 

Senators  were  forbidden  by  law  to  mix  in 
commerce,  though  no  doubt  they  evaded  the  law.  Be- 
tween the  senatorial  and  moneyed  class  there  was  a 
natural  ill-will,  which  Caius  proceeded  to  use  and  in- 
crease. His  exact  procedure  we  do  not  know  for  cer- 
tain. According  to  some  authorities  he  made  the  judices 
eligible  from  the  equites  only,  instead  of  from  the  Sen- 
ate. In  the  epitome  of  Livy  it  is  stated  that  600  of  the 
equites  were  to  be  added  to  the  number  of  the  senators, 
so  that  the  equites  should  have  twice  as  much  power  as 
the  Senate  itself.  This  at  first  sight  seems  nonsense. 
But  Caius  may  have  proposed  that  for  judicial  purposes 
600  equites  should  form,  as  it  were,  a  second  chamber, 
which,  being  twice  as  numerous,  would  permit  two 
iudices  for  every  senatorial  judex.  In  form  he  may 
have  devised  that  "counter-senate/*  which,  as  it  has 
been  shown,  he  in  fact  created.  But  whether  Caius 
provided  that  all  the  judices  or  only  two-thirds  of  them 
should  be  chosen  from  the  equites,  and  in 
whatever  way  he  did  so,  he  did  succeed  in 
a£?ed  the  exalting  the  moneyed  class  and  abasing  the 
equites  Senate.  In  civil  processes,  and  in  the  per- 

exalted.  ,  ..... 

manent  and  temporary  commissions  for  the 
administration  of  justice,  the  equites  were  henceforth 
supreme.  Romans,  Italians,  even  senators  themselves, 


CH.  in.  Caius  Gracchus.  51 

depended  on  their  verdict  for  acquittal  or  condemna- 
tion, and  the  chief  power  in  the  State  had  changed 
hands.  Of  course  the  change  would  not  be  felt  at  once 
to  the  full ;  but  this  was  the  most  trenchant  stroke 
which  Gracchus  aimed  at  the  Senate's  power.  Here, 
again,  it  is  customary  to  write  of  his  actions  as  if  they 
were  governed  solely  by  feeling,  quite  apart  from  all 
considerations  of  right  and  wrong.  But  Cicero  declares 
that  for  nearly  fifty  years,  while  the  equites  discharged 
this  office,  there  was  not  even  the  slightest  suspicion  of  a 
single  eques  being  bribed  in  his  capacity  as  judex  ;  and 
after  every  allowance  has  been  made  for  Ciceronian  ex- 
aggeration, the  statement  may  at  least  warrant  us  in  be- 
lieving that  Gracchus  had  some  reason  for  hoping  that 
his  change  would  be  a  change  for  the  better,  even  if,  as 
Appian  declares,  it  turned  out  in  the  end  just  the  oppo- 
site. Indeed,  it  is  beyond  question  that,  as  the  pro- 
vinces were  governed  by  the  senatorial  class,  judices 
who  had  to  decide  cases  like  those  of  Cotta  would  be 
more  fairly  chosen  from  the  equites  than  from  the  class 
to  which  Cotta  belonged. 

We  know  little  of  the  arrangements  for  the  taxation  of 
Asia  made  by  Gracchus.     He  provided  that  the  taxes 
should  be  let  by  auction  at  Rome,  which 
would  undoubtedly  be  a  boon  to  the  Roman      The  l**f'. 

tiun  of  Asia. 

capitalists  and  a  check  to  provincial  compe- 
tition. He  is  said  also  to  have  substituted  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  direct  and  indirect  taxes  for  the  previously  exist- 
ing system  of  fixed  payments  by  the  various  states. 
There  was  a  certain  narrowness  about  the  concep- 
tions of  both  the  Gracchi  with  regard  to  the  transmarine 
world,  which  was  common  to  all  Romans;  to  which,  for 
instance,  Tiberius  gave  expression  when  he  spoke  of  the 
conquest  of  the  whole  world  as  a  thing  which  his  audi- 


52  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  in. 

ence  had  a  right  to  expect;  and  this  sentiment  may 
have  in  this  instance  influenced  Caius  to  use  harshness. 
But  even  here  to  condemn  without  more  knowledge  of 
his  measures  would  be  unjust.  Fixed  payments  it  must 
The  be  remembered  were  not  always  preferable 

common  to  tithes  of  the  produce.     In  a  sterile  year 

criticism  r  ' 

on  the  the  payers  of  vectigalia  would  be  best  off". 

ofCahis  Again,  if  a  rich  province  like  Asia  did  not 

pay  tribute  in  proportion  to  other  provinces, 
a  re-adjustrnent  of  its  taxes  would  not  seem  to  the  Ro- 
mans unfair  ;  and  perhaps  auction  at  Rome  would  after 
all  be  less  mischievous  than  a  hole-and-corner  arrange- 
ment in  the  provinces.  If  the  sheep  were  to  be  fleeced, 
they  would  not  be  shorn  closest  in  the  capital.  To 
another  of  his  provisions  at  all  events  no  one  could 

object  — the  one  which  gave  relief  to  such 

Measure  for 

the  relief  of       publican!  as  had  suffered  loss  in  collecting 

publican! .  , 

the  revenue. 

Gracchus  had  thus  raised  the  equites  above  the  Senate 
at  Rome  in  the  courts  of  justice,  and  opened  a  golden 
Alle  ed  harvest  to  them  in  the  provinces.  It  is  con- 

pnviieges          jectured  that  he  also  gave  them  the  distinc- 

conferred  r  ,  ,  ~  .  ,  , 

on  the  tion  of  a  golden  finger-ring   and   reserved 

tquites.  seats  at  tne  public  spectacles.     Two  classes 

were  thus  gratified,  the  city  poor  and  the  city  rich.     But 
Gracchus   had  to  deal   also  with   the    farmer  class   in 
whose    favour    his    brother's   agrarian    law   had    been 
passed,  and  with  the  Italians  who  had  re- 

Caius  con-  ,     ,          ,  ,,-,  .  ,       f         .        r 

cil  ates  tne  sented  that  law.  To  provide  for  the  form- 
i^b^re01138  er  ^e  renewed  the  operation  of  his  brother  s 
newingthe  jaw  which  had  been  suspended  by  Scipio's 

agrarian 

law  of  intervention,  and   probably  took   away  its 

administration  from  the  consuls  and  re- 
stored it  to  triumvirs ;  and,  as  that  might  be  insuffi- 


CH.  in.  Caius  Gracchus.  53 

cient,  he  began  the  establishment  of  many 
colonies  in  various  parts  of  the  peninsula,  2-  ,by. 

colonies. 

and  even  beyond  it  at  Carthage,  to  which  he 

invited  colonists  from  all  parts  of  Italy.    To  compensate 

and  benefit  the  latter  he  proposed  to  give 

them  the  franchise,  so  as  to  secure  them        dhateTtho 

from   such    outrages   as   that   of   Teanum.        b^'ro'ffer 

There  are  different  accounts  of  this  mea-        of  the° / 

i      .     »  i  i  -11  franchise. 

sure ;  but  Appian  says  that  he  wished  to 
give  the  Latini  the  Jus  Suffragii  and  Jus  Honorum,  and 
to  the  rest  of  the  Italians  the  Jus  Suffragii  only.  But 
here  he  reckoned  without  his  host.  The  boons  of  colo- 
nies and  cheap  bread,  and  the  prospect  of  a  slice  out  of 
the  public  land  occupied  by  Italians,  were 

Offence 

all  not  strong  enough  to  overcome  the  deep,         given  at 
ingrained   prejudice  against  extending  the         this^st7 
franchise.    Rich  and  poor  Romans  met  here         measure. 
on  the  common  ground  of  narrow  pride,  and  the  offence 
caused  by  this  wise  project  probably  paved  the  way  for 
the  tribune's  fall. 

In  speaking  of  the  motives  which  induced  Tiberius  to 
seek  the  tribunate  a  second  time  (p.  35)  it  has  been  said 
that  he  was  not  influenced  by  personal  considerations, 
but  wanted  time  to  carry  out  his  measures.  This  view 
is  confirmed  by  what  Appian  says  about  Caius,  namely, 
that  he  was  elected  a  second  time  ;  for  already  a  law 
had  been  enacted  to  this  effect,  that  if  a  tribune  could 
not  find  time  for  executing  in  his  tribunate  what  he  had 
promised,  the  people  might  give  the  office  to  him  again 
in  preference  to  anyone  else.  This  has  been  pro- 
nounced to  be  a  blunder  on  Appian's  part,  but  without 
adequate  reason.  It  was  in  fact  the  natural  and  inevi- 
table law  which  Caius  would  insist  on  first,  and  ne  would 
plead  for  it  precisely  on  the  grounds  which  Appian  states. 


54  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  in. 

It  is  also  clear  that  such  a  law  once  passed  made  virtual 
monarchy  at    Rome  possible.      In  fact  the 
measures  of       other  measures  of  Caius  were  both  worthy 
of  a  great  and  wise  monarch,  and   might 
with  good  reason  be  thought  to  be  designed  to  lead  to 
monarchy.       He    constructed    magnificent 
roads  —  along   which,    it    would    be    whis- 
pered, his  voters  might  come  more  easily  to  Rome.     He 
built  public  granaries.      He  gave  the  sol- 
diers clothing  at  the  cost  of  the  State.      He 
made  seventeen  the  minimum  age  for  service  in  the 
army.     He  himself  superintended  the  plan- 
Soidiers'  tation  of  his  own  colonies.     Everywhere  he 

umionu.  J 

made  his  finger  felt;  but  whether  this  was 
of  set  purpose  or  only  from  his  constitutional  energy  it 

is  hard  to  decide.  His  chief  object,  how- 
servic?  ever,  was  to  overthrow  the  Senate  ;  and  we 

have  not  yet  exhausted  the  list  of  his  as- 
saults upon  it.  Hitherto  it  had  been  the  custom  for  the 
Senate  to  name  the  consular  provinces  for  the  next  year 

after  the  election  of  the  consuls,  which 
Change  in  meant  that  if  a  favourite  was  consul  a  rich 

nomination 

to  pro-  province  was  given  to  him,    and  if  not,  a 

poor  one. )  Caius  enacted-  that  the  consular 
provinces  should  be  named  before  the  election  of  the 
consuls.  By  way,  perhaps,  of  softening  this  restriction 
he  took  away  from  the  tribunes  their  veto  on  the  na- 
ming of  the  consular  provinces.  He  is  further  supposed, 
though  on  slender  evidence,  to  have  changed 
in  the  order  of  voting  in  the  Comitia  Centuria- 
of\otineg  ta-  Formerly  the  first  class  voted  first.  Now 

the  order  of  voting  first  was  to  be  settled  by 
lot,  and  so  the  influence  of  the  rich  would  be  dimin- 
ished. 


CH.  in.  Caius  Gracchus.  55 

Such,  in  outline,  was  the  grand  scheme  of  Caius 
Gracchus.  If  he  was  less  single-minded  in  his  aims  than 
his  brother,  he  could  hardly  help  being  so  ;  and,  having 
to  reconcile  so  many  conflicting  interests,  he  may  have 
swerved  from  what  would  have  been  his  own  ideal.  But 
that  his  main  purpose  was  to  break  down  a  rotten  system, 
and  establish  a  sound  one  on  its  ruins,  and  that  no  petty 
motive  of  expediency  guided  him,  but  only  Genend 
the  one  principle,  "  salus  populi  suprema  criticism  of 
lex,"  is  incontrovertible.  When  we  think  of 
him  so  eloquent,  resolute,  and  energetic,  conceiving 
such  great  projects  and  executing  them  in  person,  mak- 
ing the  regeneration  of  his  country  his  lodestar  in  spite 
of  his  ever-present  belief  that  he  would,  in  the  end,  fall 
by  the  same  fate  as  his  brother,  we  think  of  him  as  one 
of  the  noblest  figures  in  history — a  purer  and  less  selfish 
Julius  Caesar. 

As  the  petty  acts  of  the  nobles  had  brought  out  into 
relief  the  large  policy  of  Tiberius,  so  it  was  now.  They 
resorted  to  even  lower  tricks  than  accusa- 

Machina- 
tions of  tyranny,  and  found  in  the  fatuity  or        tions  of  the 

dishonesty  of  Drusus  a  tool  even  more  effec- 
tive than  Nasica's  brutality.  The  plantation  of  a  colony 
at  Carthage  was  looked  at  askance  by  many  Romans. 
It  was  the  first  colony  planted  out  of  Italy,  and  the 
superstitious  were  filled  with  forebodings  which  the 
Senate  eagerly  exaggerated.  Such  colonies  had  repeat- 
edly outgrown  and  overtopped  the  parent  state.  The 
ground  had  been  solemnly  cursed,  and  the  restoration  of 
the  town  forbidden.  When  the  first  standard  was  set  up 
by  the  colonists  a  blast  of  wind,  it  is  said,  blew  it  down, 
and  scattered  the  flesh  of  the  victims ;  and  wolves  had 
torn  up  the  stakes  that  marked  out  the  site.  Such  mali- 
cious stories  met  with  readier  credence,  because,  if  it  is 


56  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  in. 

true  that  Caius  had  called  for  colonists  from  all  Italy, 
arid  Junonia  was  to  be  a  Roman  colony,  he  was  evading 
the  decree  of  the  people  against  extending  the  franchise; 
and  he  was  thus  admitting  to  it,  by  a  side-wind,  those  to 
whom  it  had  just  in  the  harshest  manner  been  refused. 
For,  when  the  vote  had  been  taken,  every  man  not  hav- 
ing a  vote  had  been  expelled  from  the  city,  and  forbid- 
den to  come  within  five  miles  of  it  till  the  voting  was 
over.  Caius  had  come  to  live  in  the  Forum  instead  of 
on  the  Palatine  when  he  returned  to  Rome,  among  his 
friends  as  he  thought ;  and  still  even  in  little  matters  he 
stood  forward  as  the  champion  of  the  poor  against  the 
rich.  There  was  going  to  be  a  show  of  gladiators  in  the 
Forum,  and  the  magistrates  had  enclosed  the  arena  with 
benches,  which  they  meant  to  hire  out.  Caius  asked 
them  to  remove  the  benches,  and,  on  their  refusal,  went 
the  night  before  the  show  and  took  them  all  away.  Any 
one  who  has  witnessed  modern  athletic  sports,  and  ob- 
served how  a  crowd  will  hem  in  the  competitors  so  that 
only  a  few  spectators  can  see,  although  an  equally  good 
view  can  be  obtained  by  a  great  number  if  the  ring  is 
enlarged,  will  perceive  Caius' s  object,  and  be  slow  to 
admit  that  he  spoiled  the  show.  But  though  such  acts 
pleased  the  people,  all  of  them  had  not  forgiven  him  the 
proposition  about  the  franchise,  and  his  popularity  was 
on  the  wane.  The  Senate  had  suborned  one  of  his  col- 
leagues, M.  Livius  Drusus,  to  outbid  him. 
"  Either  Drusus  thought  he  was  guiding  the 
Senate  into  a  larger  policy  when  he  was 
himself  merely  the  Senate's  puppet,  and  this  his  son's 
career  makes  probable,  or  he  was  cynically  dishonest 
and  unscrupulous. 

Caius  had  meditated,  it  may  be,  many  colonies,  but, 
according  to  Plutarch,  had  at  this  time  only  actually 


CH.  in.  Caius  Gracchus.  57 

settled  two.  Drusus  proposed  to  plant  twelve,  each  of 
3,000  citizens.  Caius  had  superintended  the  settlement 
himself,  and  employed  his  friends.  With  virtuous  self- 
denial  Drusus  washed  his  hands  of  all  such  patronage. 
Caius  had  imposed  a  yearly  tax  on  those  to  whom  he 
gave  land;  Drusus  proposed  to  remit  it.  Caius  had 
wished  to  give  the  Latins  the  franchise  ;  Drusus  replied 
by  a  comparatively  ridiculous  favour,  which,  however, 
might  appeal  more  directly  to  the  lower  class  of  Latins. 
No  Latin,  he  said,  should  be  liable  to  be  flogged  even 
when  serving  in  the  army.  Drusus  could  afford  to  be 
liberal.  His  colonies  were  sham  colonies,  His  remis- 
sion of  the  vectigal  was  a  thin-coated  poison.  His  pro- 
mise to  the  Latins  was  at  best  a  cheap  one,  and  was  not 
carried  out.  But  none  the  less  his  treachery  or  imbe- 
cility served  its  purpose,  and  the  greedier  and  baser  of 
the  partisans  of  Gracchus  began  to  look  coldly  on  their 
leader.  It  is  stated,  indeed,  that  on  his 
standing  for  the  tribunate  a  third  time  he  jected  for 
was  rejected  by  fraud,  his  colleagues  hav-  bunate" 
ing  made  a  false  return  of  the  names  of  the 
candidates.  In  any  case  he  was  not  elected,  and  one  of 
the  consuls  for  the  year  121  was  L.  Opimius,  his  mortal 
foe. 

The  end  was  drawing  near.  Sadly  Caius  must  have 
recognized  that  his  presentiments  would  soon  be  ful- 
filled, and  that  he  must  share  his  brother's  fate.  His 
foes  proposed  to  repeal  the  law  for  the  set- 

1  l  .rrepara- 

tlement  of  Junonia,  and,  according  to  Plu-         tions  for 

i          i  r  i  •      t  i  ITT  j    i_  civilstrife. 

tarch,  others  of  his  laws  also.     Warned  by 
the  past,  his  friends  armed.     Men  came  disguised  as 
reapers  to  defend  him.     It  is  likely  enough  that  they 
were  really  reapers,  who  would  remember  why  Tiberius 
lost  his  life,  and  that  their  support  would  have  saved 


5  8  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  in. 

him.  Fulvius  was  addressing  the  people  about  the  law 
when  Caius,  attended  by  some  of  his  partisans,  came  to 
the  Capitol.  He  did  not  join  the  meeting,  but  began 
walking  up  and  down  under  a  colonnade  to  wait  its 
issue.  Here  a  man  named  Antylius,  who  was  sacri- 
ficing, probably  in  behalf  of  Opimius  the  consul,  either 
insulted  the  Gracchans  and  was  stabbed  by  them,  or 
caughc  hold  of  Caius's  hand,  or  by  some  other  familiar- 
ity or  importunity  provoked  some  hasty  word  or  gesture 
from  him,  upon  which  he  was  stabbed  by  a  servant. 
As  soon  as  the  deed  was  done  the  people  ran  away,  and 
Caius  hastened  to  the  assembly  to  explain  the  affair. 
But  it  began  to  rain  heavily ;  and  for  this,  and  because 
of  the  murder,  the  assembly  was  adjourned.  Caius  and 
Fulvius  went  home  ;  but  that  night  the  people  thronged 
the  Forum,  expecting  that  some  violence  would  be  done 
at  daybreak.  Opimius  was  not  slow  to  seize  the  oppor- 
tunity. He  convoked  the  Senate,  and  occupied  the 
temple  ^of  Castor  and  Pollux  with  armed  men.  The 
body  of  Antylius  was  placed  on  a  bier,  and  with  loud 
lamentations  borne  along  the  Forum  ;  and  as  it  passed 
by  the  senators  came  out  and  hypocritically  expressed 
their  anger  at  the  deed.  Then,  going  indoors,  they 
authorized  the  consul,  by  the  usual  formula,  to  resort  to 
arms.  He  summoned  the  senators  and  equites  to  arm, 
and  each  eques  was  to  bring  two  armed  slaves.  The 
equites  owed  much  to  Gracchus,  but  they  basely  de- 
serted him  now.  Fulvius,  on  his  side,  armed  and  pre- 
pared for  a  struggle.  All  the  night  the  friends  of  Caius 
guarded  his  door,  watching  and  sleeping  by  turns. 
The  house  of  Fulvius  was  also  surrounded 
Fight  ng  by  men  who  drank  and  bragged  of  what 

in  Rome  * 

they  would  do  on  the  morrow,  and  Fulvius 
is  said  to  have  set  them  the  example.     At  daybreak  he 


CK.  in.  Cams  Gracchus.  59 

and  his  men,  to  whom  he  distributed  the  arms  which  he 
had  when  consul  taken  from  the  Gauls,  rushed  shouting 
up  to  the  Aventine  and  seized  it.  Caius  said  good-bye 
to  his  wife  and  little  child,  and  followed,  in  his  toga,  and 
unarmed.  He  knew  he  was  going  to  his  death,  but 

"  For  his  country  felt  alone. 
And  prized  her  blood  beyond  his  own.'* 

One  effort  he  made  to  avert  the  struggle.  He  induced 
Fulvius  to  send  his  young  son  to  the  Senate  to  ask  for 
terms.  The  messenger  returned  with  the  Senate's  reply 
that  they  must  lay  down  their  arms,  and  the  two  leaders 
must  come  and  answer  for  their  acts.  Caius  was  ready 
to  go  But  Fulvius  was  too  deeply  committed,  and  sent 
his  son  back  again,  upon  which  Opimius  seized  him,  and 
at  once  marched  to  the  Aventine.  There  was  a  fight,  in 
which  Fulvius  was  beaten,  and  with  another  son  fled  and 
hid  himself  in  a  bath  or  workshop.  His  pursuers  threat- 
ened to  burn  all  that  quarter  if  he  was  not  given  up  ;  so 
the  man  who  had  admitted  him  told  another  man  to  be- 
tray him,  and  father  and  son  were  slain. 

Meanwhile  Caius,  who  had  neither  armed  nor  fought, 
was  about  to  kill  himself  in  the  temple  of  Diana,  when 
his  two  friends  implored  him  to  try  and  save 
himself  for  happier  times.     Then  it  is  said  olc'akis 

he  invoked  a  curse  on  the  people  for  their 
ingratitude,  and  fled  across  the  Tiber.  He  was  nearly 
overtaken  ;  but  his  two  staunch  friends,  Pomponius  and 
Laetorius,  gave  their  lives  for  their  leader— Pomponius  at 
the  Porta  Trigemina  below  the  Aventine,  Laetoria  in 
guarding  the  bridge  which  was  the  scene  of  the  feat  of 
Horatius  Codes.  As  Caius  passed  people  cheered  him 
on,  as  if  it  was  a  race  in  the  games.  He  called  for  help, 
but  no  one  helped  him — for  a  horse,  but  there  was  none 


60  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  in. 

at  hand.  One  slave  still  kept  up  with  him,  named  Philo- 
crates  or  Euporus.  Hard  pressed  by  their  pursuers  the 
two  entered  the  grove  of  Furina,  and  there  the  slave 
first  slew  Caius  and  then  himself  A  wretch  named 
Septimuleius  cut  oft"  the  head  of  Gracchus  ;  for  a  procla- 
mation had  been  made  that  whosoever  brought  the 
heads  of  the  two  leaders  should  receive  their  weight  in 
gold.  Septimuleius,  it  is  said,  took  out  the  brains  and 
filled  the  cavity  with  lead;  but  if  he  cheated  Opimius, 
Opimius  in  his  turn  cheated  those  who  brought  the  head 
of  Fulvius,  for  as  they  were  of  the  lower  class  he  would 
pay  them  nothing.  The  story  may  be  false ;  but  Opi- 
mius was  subsequently  convicted  of  selling  his  country's 
interests  to  Jugurtha  for  money,  so  that  with  equal  like- 
lihood  it  may  be  true.  In  the  fight  and  afterwards  he 
put  to  death  3,000  men,  many  of  whom  were  innocent, 
but  whom  he  would  not  allow  to  speak  in  their  defence. 
The  houses  of  Caius  and  Fulvius  were  sacked,  and  the 
property  of  the  slain  was  confiscated.  Then  the  city 
was  purified,  and  the  ferocious  knave  Opimius  raised  a 
temple  to  Concord,  on  which  one  night  was  found  writ- 
ten "  The  work  of  Discord  makes  the  temple  of  Con- 
cord." That  year  there  was  a  famous  vintage,  and 
nearly  two  centuries  afterwards  there  was  some  wine 
which  had  been  made  at  the  time  that  Caius  Gracchus 
died.  The  wine,  says  the  elder  Pliny,  tasted  like  and 
had  the  consistency  of  bitterish  honey.  But  the  memory 
of  the  great  tribune  has  lasted  longer  than  the  wine,,  and 
will  be  honoured  for  ever  by  all  those  who  revere  patrio- 
tism and  admire  genius.  He  for  whom  at  the  last  ex- 
tremity friend  and  slave  give  their  lives  does  not  fall  in- 
gloriously.  Even  for  a  life  so  noble  such  deaths  are  a 
sufficient  crown. 

The  child  of  Caius  did  not  long  survive  him.     The 


B.C.  I2i.  Caius  Gracchus.  61 

son  of  Tiberius  died  while  a  boy.      Only 

/         The   mother 

Cornelia,  the  worthy  mother  of  the  heroic      of  the 
brothers,  remained.     She  could  (according 
to  the  purport  of  Plutarch's  pathetic  narrative)  speak  of 
them  without  a  sigh  or  tear  ;  and  those  who  concluded 
from  this  that  her  mind  was  clouded  by  age  or  misfor- 
tune, were  too  dull  themselves  to  comprehend  how  a 
noble  nature  and  noble  training  can  support  sorrow,  for 
though  fate  may  often  frustrate  virtue,  yet  "  to  bear  is  to 
conquer  our  fate." 

The  nobles  no  doubt  thought  that,  having  got  rid  of 
Gracchus,  they  had  renewed  their  own  lease  of  power. 
But  they  had  only  placed  themselves  at  the 
mercy   of  meaner  men.      The   murderous       S^noSes* 
scenes  just  related  happened  in  121  B.  c..        after  the 

J  murder. . 

and  in  119  we  read  of  a  Lex  Maria,  the  first 
law,  that  is  to  say,  promulgated  by  the  destined  scourge 
of  the  Roman  aristocracy.     Every  Roman 
could  vote,  and  voted    by  ballot,  and  was 
eligible  to  every  office.     The  first  law  of  Marius  was  to 
protect  voters  from  the   solicitations  of  candidates  for 
office.  It  is  significant  that  the  nobles  opposed  it,  though 
in  the  end  it  was  carried.     Stealthy  intrigue  was  now 
their  safest  weapon,  but  their  power  was  tottering  to  its 
fall.     Too  jealous  of  each  other  to  submit  to  the  supre- 
macy of  one,  it  only  remained  for  them  to  be  overthrown 
by  some  leader  of  the  popular  party,  and  the  Republic 
was  no  more.     Yet,  as  if  smitten  by  judicial  blindness, 
they  proceeded  to  hasten  on  their  own  ruin  by  reaction- 
ary provocations  to  their  opponents.     They 
dared   not   interfere   with  the   corn  law  of         \^l\™ 
Caius,  for  now  that  every  man  had  a  vote,          jJJ^  m 
which  he  could  give  by  ballot,  they  were 
dependent  on  the  suffrages  of  the  mob.     Neither  dared 


62  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  in. 

they  till  seventeen  years  later  make  an  attempt  to 
interfere  with  the  selection  of  the  judices  from  the 
equestrian  order,  and  even  then  the  attempt  failed.  The 
scheme  of  taxation  in  the  province  of  Asia  was  also  left 
untouched.  But  what  they  dared  to  do  they  did.  They 
prosecuted  the  adherents  of  Gracchus.  They  recalled 
Popillius  from  exile.  When  Opimius  was  arraigned  for 
"  perduellio,"  or  misuse  of  his  official  power  to  compass 
the  death  of  a  citizen,  they  procured  his  acquittal.  But 
when  Carbo  was  accused  of  the  same  crime,  they  re- 
membered that  he  had  been  a  partisan  of  Tiberius, 
though  since  a  renegade,  and  would  not  help  him.  So 
while  Opimius  got  off,  the  champion  of  Opimius  was 
driven  to  commit  suicide — a  fitting  close  to  a  contempti- 
ble career. 

But  they  soon  assailed  measures  as  well  as  men.    The 
Lex  Baebia  appears  to  have  secured  those  who  had  ac- 
tually established  themselves  at  Carthage  in 

Reaction- 
ary legisla-        their  allotments ;   but   the  Senate  annulled 

the  colonies  which  Caius  had  planned  in 
Italy,  and,  with  one  exception,  Neptunia,  broke  up  those 
already  settled.  Then  by  three  successive  enactments 
it  got  rid  of  the  agrarian  law,  and  plunged  Italy  again 
into  the  decline  from  which  by  the  help  of  that  law  she 
The  a  ra  was  emer£mg-  *•  The  occupiers  were 
rian  law  allowed  again  to  sell  their  land.  Tiberius 

annulled.  -i      j  i       .-     i  •  j  j         ^  •  j  i 

had  expressly  forbidden  this,  and  now  the 
rich  at  once  began  to  buy  out  the  small  owners,  whom 
they  often  evicted  by  means  more  or  less  foul.  2.  A 
tribune  named  Borius,  or  Thorius,  prohibited  any  further 
distribution  of  land,  thus  knocking  on  the  head  the  per- 
manent commission.  These  two  laws  were  tantamount 
to  handing  over  to  the  rich  Romans  and  Italians  the 
greater  part  of  the  public  land,  giving  them  a  legal  title 


CH.  in.  Caius  Gracchus.  63 

to  it  instead  of  the  possession  on  sufferance  with  which 
the  Gracchi  had  interfered.  The  mouths  of  the  farmers 
were  stopped  by  pernicious  but  tempting  permission  to 
sell  their  land.  The  people  were  cajoled  by  the  vecti- 
galia, which  Drusus  had  abolished,  being  reimposed, 
and  the  proceeds  divided  among  them.  3.  Encouraged 
by  the  general  acquiescence  in  these  insidious  aggres- 
sions they  induced  a  tribune,  whose  name  is  conjectured 
to  have  been  C.  Baebius,  to  do  away  with  the  vectigalia 
altogether.  The  date  of  this  law,  usually 
called  the  Thorian  law,  was  in  B.C.  The  Lex  T1 
real  Thorian  law  was  probably  carried  in  118  B.  c.  Be- 
tween these  dates  the  rich  would  have  been  getting  back 
the  land  from  the  poor  occupiers,  and  so,  when  the  Sen- 
ate abolished  the  vectigalia,  it  was  really  pocketing  them, 
and  once  for  all  and  by  a  legal  form  turning  the  public 
into  private  land.  This  law,  which  is  here  called  the 
Baebian  law,  Cicero  ascribes  to  Spurius  Thorius,  who, 
he  says,  freed  the  land  from  the  vectigal.  But  as  Appian 
says  that  Spurius  Borius  imposed  the  vectigal,  it  is 
assumed  that  Cicero  confused  names,  that  the  Spurius 
Borius  of  Appian  was  Spurius  Thorius,  and  that  the  tri- 
bune whom  Cicero  calls  Thorius  was  really  quite  another 
person.  However  that  may  be,  the  law  would  benefit 
the  rich,  because  the  rich  would  be  owners  of  the  land. 
Certain  provisions  of  it  were  directly  meant  to  prevent 
Italian  opposition.  For  if  many  of  the  poor  farmers 
would  grumble  at  being  ousted  from  their  land,  the  land 
which  had  been  specially  assigned  to  Latin  towns,  and 
of  which  Tiberius  Gracchus  had  threatened  to  dispossess 
them,  was  left  in  the  same  state  as  before  his  legislation  ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  Senate  did  not  give  the  occupiers  an 
indefeasible  title,  but  it  did  not  meddle  with  them.  More- 
over, it  amply  indemnified  the  Socii  and  Latini  who  had 


64  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.        CH.  in. 

surrendered  land  for  the  colonies  of  Caius,  while  some 
compensation  was  given  to  poor  farmers  by  a  clause, 
that  in  future  a  man  might  only  graze  ten  large  and  fifty 
smaller  beasts  on  the  pastures  of  what  still  remained 
public  land.  By  this  law  the  jurisdiction  over  land 
which  had  been  assigned  by  the  triumvirs  was  given  to 
the  consuls,  censors,  and  praetors,  the  jurisdiction  over 
cases  in  which  disputes  with  the  publicani  required  set- 
tlement being  granted  to  the  consuls,  praetors,  and,  as 
such  cases  would  occur  chiefly  in  the  provinces  which 
were  mostly  under  propraetors,  to  propraetors  also. 

The  results  of  this  reactionary  legislation 
resuUsoT*  are  partly  summed  up  by  Appian,  when  he 
the  reac-  attributes  to  it  a  dearth  of  citizens,  soldiers, 

tion. 

and  revenue.  To  our  eyes  its  effects  are 
clearer  still.  Slave-labour  and  slave-discontent,  "  lati- 
fundia,"  decrease  of  population,  depreciation  of  the  land, 
received  a  fresh  impetus,  and  the  triumphant  optimates 
pushed  the  State  step  by  step  further  down  the  road  to 
ruin.  For  the  end  for  which  they  struggled  was  not  the 
good  of  Italy,  much  less  of  the  world,  but  the  supremacy 
of  Rome  in  Italy,  and  of  themselves  in  Rome.  Wealth 
and  office  were  shared  by  an  ever  narrowing  circle. 
Ten  years  after  the  passing  of  the  Baebian  law,  it  was 
said  that  among  all  the  citizens  there  were  only  2,000 
wealthy  families.  And  between  the  years  123  and  129 
B.  c.  four  sons  and  probably  two  nephews  of  Quintus 
Metellus  gained  the  consulship,  five  of  the  six  gained 
triumphs,  and  one  was  censor,  while  he  himself  had 
filled  all  the  highest  offices  of  the  state.  Thus,  as  Sallust 
says,  the  nobles  passed  on  the  chief  dignities  from  hand 
to  hand. 

There  must  have  been  many  of  the  Gracchan  party, 
now   left  without  a   head,  who  burned   for  deliverance 


OH.  iv.  The  Jugurthine  War.  65 

from  such  despicable  masters.  But  they  were  for  the 
time  disorganized  and  cowed.  There  was  one  man 
whom  Scipio  ^milianus  was  said  to^have  pointed  out  in 
the  Numantine  war  as  capable,  if  he  himself  died,  of 
taking  his  place;  and  the  rough  soldier  had  already 
come  forward  as  a  politician,  on  the  one  hand  checking 
the  optimates  by  protecting  the  secrecy  and  efficiency  of 
the  ballot,  and  on  the  other  defying  the  mob  by  oppos- 
ing a  distribution  of  corn  ;  but  for  the  present  no  one 
could  tell  how  far  he  would  or  could  go,  and  though  he 
had  already  been  made  praetor,  the  Metelli  could  as  yet 
afford  to  despise  him.  The  death  of  Caius  prolonged 
the  Senate's  misrule  for  twenty  years.  Twenty  years  of 
shame  at  home  and  abroad— the  turpitude 
of  the  Jugurthine  war — a  second  and  more  £.aiu.s 

•_•*.,  .      .       „.    .  Marms. 

stubborn  slave  revolt  in  Sicily — the  appari- 
tion of  the  Northern  hordes  inflicting  disaster  after  dis- 
aster upon  the  Roman  armies,  which  in  105  B.  c.  culmi- 
nated in  another  and  more  appalling  Cannae — these  things 
had  yet  to  come  about  before  the  cup  of  the  Senate's 
infamy  was  full,  and  before  those  who  had  drawn  the 
sword  against  the  Gracchi  perished  by  the  sword  ol 
Marius,  impotent,  unpitied,  and  despised. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  JUGURTHINE   WAR. 

ATTALUS  III.,  the  last  of  that  supple  dynasty  which 
had  managed  to  thrive  on  the  jealous  and  often  treach- 
erous patronage  of  Rome,  left  his  dominions 
at  his   death    to   the   Republic.       He  had         Attains  of 

Pergamus. 

beeun   his  reign  by  massacring  all  his  fa- 
ther's  friends  and  their   families,  and   ended   it  as  an 

F 


66  The  Gracchi ',  Marias,  and  Sulla.        CH.  iv. 

amateur  gardener  and  dilettante  modeller  in  wax;  so 
perhaps  the  malice  of  insanity  had  something  to  do  with 
the  bequest,  if  indqgd  it  was  not  a  forgery.  Aristonicus, 
a  natural  son  of  a  previous  king,  Eumenes  II.,  set  it  at 
naught  and  aspired  to  the  throne. 

Attalus  died  in  133,  the  year  of  the  tribunate  of  Tibe- 
rius  Gracchus,  when    Scipio  was   besieging   Numanti?, 
and  the  first  slave  revolt  was  raging  in  Sicily. 
A^omcus        The  Romans  had  their  hands  full,  and  Aris- 
kingdomof        tonicus  might   have  so  established  himself 

Pergamus.  .          .  1111 

as  to  give  them  trouble,  had  not  some  of  the 
Asiatic  cities,  headed  by  Ephesus,  and  aided  by  the 
kings  of  Cappadocia  and  Bithynia,  opposed  him.  He 
seized  Leucse  (the  modern  Lefke)  and  was  expelled  by 
the  Ephesians.  But  when  the  Senate  found  time  to  send 
commissioners,  he  was  already  in  possession  of  Thyatira, 
Apollonia,  Myndus,  Colophon,  and  Samos.  Blossius, 
the  friend  of  Gracchus,  had  come  to  him,  and  the  civil 
strife  at  Rome  must  have  raised  his  hopes.  But  in  the 
year  131  P.  Licinius  Crassus  Mucianus,  the  father-in- 
law  of  Caius  Gracchus,  was  consul,  and  was  sent  to  Asia. 
He  was  Pontifex  Maximus,  rich,  high-born,  eloquent, 
and  of  great  legal  knowledge  ;  and  from  his  intimacy 
with  the  Gracchi  and  Scipio  he  must  have  been  an 
unusually  favourable  specimen  of  the  aristocrat  of  the 
day.  And  this  is  what  he  did  in  Asia.  He  was  going 

to  besiege  Leucse,  and  having  seen  two 
CrTstuf  °f  pieces  of  timber  at  Elaea,  sent  for  the  larger 
illustrating  of  them  to  make  a  battering  ram.  The 

Roman  rule  ° 

m  the  builder,  who  was  the  chief  magistrate  of  the 

province.  .  .          ,  ,,  .  , 

town,  sent  him  the  smaller  piece  as  being 
the  most  suitable,  and  Crassus  had  him  stripped  and 
scourged.  Next  year  he  was  surprised  by  the  enemy 
near  Leucse.  Apparently  he  could  have  got  off  if  he  had 


CH.  iv.  The  Jugurthine  War.  67 

not  been  laden  with  his  collections  in  Asia,  to  procure 
which  he  had  intrigued  to  prevent  his  colleague  Flaccus 
getting  that  province.  Unable  to  escape,  he  provoked 
his  captor  to  kill  him  by  thrusting  a  stick  into  his  eye. 
His  death  was  a  striking  comment  on  the  Senate's  gov- 
ernment. Cruelty  and  culture,  perso'nal  bravery  and 
incompetence— such  an  alloy  was  now  the  best  metal 
which  its  most  respectable  representatives  could  supply. 

Aristonicus  was  now  the  more  formidable  because  he 
had  roused  the  slaves,,  among  whom  the  spirit  of  revolt, 
in  sympathy  with  the  rest  of  their  kind  ^  of 
throughout  the  Roman  world,  was  then  Anstonicus 
working.  But  in  the  year  130  M.  Perperna  mem  of  the 
surprised  him,  and  carried  him  to  Rome. 
Blossius  committed  suicide.  The  pretender  was  strangled 
in  prison.  Part  of  his  territory  was  given  to*  the  kings, 
who  had  helped  the  consul,  one  of  whom  was  the  father 
of  the  great  Mithridates.  Phrygia  was  the  share  assigned 
to  him  ;  but  the  Senate  took  it  back  from  his  successor, 
saying  that  the  consul  Aquillius  had  been  bribed  to  give 
it.  The  consul  may  have  been  base  or  the  Senate  mean, 
or,  what  is  more  probable,  the  baseness  of  the  one  was 
used  as  a  welcome  plea  by  the  other's  meanness.  The 
European  part  was  added  to  the  province  of  Macedonia. 
The  Lycian  confederacy  received  Telmissus.  The  rest 
was  formed  into  a  province,  which  was  called  Asia — the 
name  being  at  once  an  incentive  to  and  a  nucleus  for 
future  annexation.  Such  a  nucleus  they  already  pos- 
sessed in  the  province  of  Africa,  and  there  also  war  was 
kindled  by  the  ambition  of  a  bastard. 

Jugurtha  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  Mastanabal. 
Micipsa's  brother.  He  had  served  at  Numantia  under 
Scipio,  along  with  his  future  conqueror  Jugurtha, 
Marius.  There  he  had  begun  to  intrigue 


63  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.        CH.  iv. 

with  influential  Romans  for  the  succession  to  the  Numi- 
dian  kingdom,  and  had  been  rebuked  by  Scipio,  who 
told  him  he  should  cultivate  the  friendship,  not  of  indi 
vidual  Romans,  but  of  the  State.  But  in  Jugurtha's 
heart  a  noble  sentiment  found  no  echo.  Brave,  treache- 
rous, restless,  an  able  commander,  a  crafty  politician, 
adroit  in  discerning  and  profiting  by  other  men's  bad 
qualities,  wading  to  the  throne  through  the  blood  of 
three  kinsmen,  he  in  some  respect  resembles  Shaks- 
peare's  Richard  III., — his  "  prime  of  manhood  daring, 
bold,  and  venturous,"  his  "  age  confirmed,  proud,  subtle, 
sly,  and  bloody."  Micipsa  had  shared  the  kingdom 
with  his  two  brothers,  who  died  before  him  ; 
MHpsa's  anci  as  this,  which  was  Scipio's  arrange- 
ment, had  not  worked  badly  in  his  own 
case,  he  in  his  turn  left  his  kingdom  between  Adherbal, 
Hiempsal,  and  Jugurtha.  Adherbal  was  weak  and 
pusillanimous,  Hiempsal  hot-tempered  and  rash.  Ju- 
gurtha, ten  or  fifteen  years  older  than  either,  was  the 
favourite  of  the  nation,  his  handsome,  martial  figure  and 
his  reputation  as  a  soldier  according  with  the  notions  of 
a  race  of  riders  as  to  what  a  king  should  be.  Hiempsal 
soon  provoked  him  by  refusing  to  yield  the  place  of 
honour  to  him  at  their  first  meeting;  and  when  Jugurtha 
said  that  Micipsa's  acts  during  the  last  five  years  of  his 
life  should  be  held  as  null  because  of  his  impaired 
faculties,  Hiempsal  retorted  that  he  agreed  with  him, 
for  it  was  within  three  years  that  he  had  adopted  Jugur- 
tha. Hiempsal  went  to  a  town  called  Thir- 
get*  Hd  of  mida,  to  the  house  of  a  man  who  had  been 
in  Jugurtha's  service.  This  man  Jugurtha 
bribed  to  procure  a  model  of  the  town  keys,  which  were 
<t:iken  to  Hiempsal  each  evening.  Then  his  men,  get- 
ting into  Thinnida  one  night,  cut  off  Hiempsal's  head 


CH.  iv.  The  Jugur thine  War.  69 

and  took  it  to  their  master.  He  then  proceeded  to  seize 
town  after  town  ;  all  the  best  warriors  rallied  to  his  stan- 
dard, and  in  a  pitched  battle  he  defeated  Adherbal,  who 
fled  to  Rome,  whither  he  had  previously  sent  ambassa- 
dors imploring  aid.  Jugurtha  also  sent  envoys  with 
plenty  of  money,  to  be  given  first  to  his  old  comrades, 
and  then  to  men  likely  to  be  useful.  At  once  the  indig- 
nation which  the  wrongs  of  the  brothers  had  roused  at 
Rome  cooled  down.  But  M.  yEmilius  Scaurus,  the  chief 
of  the  aristocracy,  seems  to  have  been  bidding  for  a 
higher  price  than  was  at  first  offered  him,  and  by  his  in- 
fluence ten  commissioners  were  appointed 
to  divide  the  kingdom.  Scaurus  had  in  his  £*.  ^Emilius 

r  Scaurus. 

youth  thought  of  becoming  a  money- 
lender, a  trade  in  which  he  would  certainly  have  ex- 
celled; and  he  may  very  likely  have  hoped  to  make 
something  out  of  the  commission,  as  the  exemplary 
Opimius,  murderer  of  Caius  Gracchus,  did.  This  man, 
whom  Cicero  extols  as  a  most  excellent  citizen,  had  op- 
posed Jugurtha  at  Rome,  but  being  in  consequence 
treated  by  the  king  in  Numidia  with  marked  deference, 
joined  the  majority  of  his  colleagues  in  swal- 
lowing the  bribes  offered  to  them.  So  Ad-  fc^e 
herbal  received  the  eastern  half  which,  cpm.i.is- 

sioners. 

though  it  contained   the  capital  Cirta  and 

better  harbours  and  towns,  consisted  mostly  of  barren 

sand,  while  the  more  fertile  portion  was  assigned  to  his 

rival. 

This  took  place  in  the  year  117  B.  c.     Scarcely  had  the 
commissioners  left  the  province  when  the 

r  i      -11    •  •  i  A  j  Jugurtha 

successful  villain  again  took  up  arms.  Ad-  assails 
herbal,  after  much  long-suffering  and  send-  who^ 
ing  a  complaint  to  Rome,  was  driven  to  do  1°  the 

senate. 

the  same  in  self-defence.     But  he  was  de- 


70  The  Gracchi,  Marius  arid  Sulla.         CH.  iv, 

feated  between  Cirta  and  the  sea,  and  would  have  been 
taken  in  Cirta  had  not  the  colony  of  Italians  resident 
there  beaten  off  the  horsemen  in  pursuit.  Meanwhile  Ad- 
herbal's  message  had  reached  Rome,  and  the  Senate, 
with  its  high  sense  of  responsibility,  sent  ten  young  men 
to  Numidia  as  adjudicators.  Perhaps,  indeed,  it  was  not 
mere  carelessness  which  sent  these  young  hopefuls  to  the 
best  school  of  bribery  in  the  world.  They  were  bidden 
to  insist  simply  on  the  war  ceasing,  and  the  two  kings 
settling  their  disputes  by  law.  And  yet  the  news  of  the 
battle  and  the  siege  of  Cirta  had  reached 
commis-d  Rome.  Jugurtha  came  to  them,  and  said 

sion,  tjjat  his  merits  had  won  Scipio's  approval, 

hoaxed   or 

bribed  by  and  that,  conscious  of  right,  he  could  not 

submit  to  wrong ;  he  then  gravely  charged 
Adherbal  with  plotting  against  his  life,  and  promised  to 
send  ambassadors  to  Rome.  Then  the  ten  young  men 
without  even  seeing  Adherbal,  left  Africa,  not  we  may 
conjecture  so  lightly  laden  as  they  came  there. 

The  town  of  Cirta  stood  on  the  promontory  of  a 
peninsula  formed  by  a  loop  of  the  river  Ampsaga,  and 
was  almost  impregnable.  Modern  writers  represent  it 
as  a  square  spur,  thrust  out  into  a  gorge  which  runs 
between  two  mountain-ranges,  this  gorge  being  spanned 
by  a  bridge  at  one  corner  of  the  square.  The  town,  now 
known  as  Constantina,  and  distant  48  miles  from  the  sea 
and  200  from  Algiers,  has  been  described  as  occupying  a 
bold  and  commanding  situation  on  a  steep,  rocky  hiU,  with 
the  river  Rummel  flowing  on  three  sides  of  its  base,  the 
country  around  being  a  high  terrace  between  the  chains 
of  the  maritime  and  central  Atlas.  Such  being  the  strength 
Adherhal  °f  ^e  place,  Jugurtha  could  only  hope  to  re- 

in°Qrataed          duce  it  by  blockade,  and  it  was  only  after  four 
months  that  two  of  Adherbal's  men  got  out 


B.C.  ii2  The  Jugur -thine  War.  71 

and  carried  a  piteous  appeal  from  their  master  to  the 
Senate,  adjuring  them,  not  indeed  to  give  him  back  his 
kingdom,  but  to  save  his  life.  Some  of  the  Senate 
were  for  sending  an  army  to  Africa  at  once, 

*  A  third 

but  in  those  days  honest  men  were  always  commis- 

in  the    minority,  and    three  commissioners 
were    sent    instead — Scaurus,    the    man    who    had    so 
lively  an  appreciation  of  his  own  value,  at  their  head. 
Jugurtha,  after  a  desperate  attempt  to  storm  Cirta  before 
they  arrived,  came  to  them  at  Utica,  where 

r~i  Jugurtha  is 

he  was  admonished  at  great  length.     Then      admonished 
this  precious  trio  left  Africa,  as  the  ten  young      by  II 
men  had  done ;    and  the   surrender  of  Cirta  followed, 
either  because  despair  led  its  defenders  to 

,  .  .  .  .,  Cirta   taken, 

hope  that  submission,  as  it  would  save  the      anfi  Ad- 
enemy  trouble,  might  conciliate  him,  or  per-      ^jJdered 
haps  because  water  or  food  ran  short.     Ju- 
gurtha   immediately  tortured   Adherbal   to    death,  and 
put   every  Numidian  and   Italian  in  the   place  to  the 
sword. 

Then  at  last  a  thrill  of  genuine  anger  went  through 
Rome.  The  honour  of  the  State  had  been  sorely  wounded, 
but  gold  had  been  thus  far  a  pleasant  salve.  Now, 
however,  the  equites  were  touched  in  their  hearts  at  the 
fate  probably  of  some  of  their  own  kinsmen,  and  almost 
certainly  in  an  even  more  sensitive  part  their  purses. 
For  no  doubt  there  were  commercial  relations  between 
the  Italian  community  at  Cirta  and  the  Ro- 

'  Genuine  m- 

man  merchants,  and  here  their  gains  were  dignation  at 
confiscated  at  one  stroke  by  a  savage.  The 
senators,  on  the  other  hand,  who  had  taken  Numidian 
money,  tried  to  quash  discussion,  and  would  have  suc- 
ceeded if  the  tribune,  Caius  Memmius,  had  not  overawed 
them  by  his  harangues.  Fresh  envoys,  who  had  been 


72  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.        CH,  iv. 

sent  by  Jugurtha  with  a  fresh  bribery  fund,  were  ordered 

to  leave  Italy  in  ten  days  ;  and  Bestia  sailed 
clawed.6"  f°r  Africa,  taking  with  him  as  his  second  in 

w^iric^118       command  Scaurus,  who  felt,  no  doubt,  that 

a  patriot  was  at  last  rewarded.     There  was 

some  fighting,  and  then  the  money  from  which  Roman 

virtue  had  shrunk  in  Italy  could  be  resisted  no  longer. 

nrtha  Tne  itcnmg  palm  of  Scaurus  was  at  length 

bribes  the          filled  as  full  as  he  thought  mere  decency 

demanded.  Bestia  was  also  gratified,  Ju- 
gurtha's  submission  was  accepted,  hostilities  ceased,  and 
the  consul  sailed  home  to  superintend  the  next  year's 
elections. 

But  Memmius,  justly  incensed,  now  took  a  bolder  tone. 
We  cannot  tell  how  far  Sallust  reports  what  he  really 

said,  or  how  far  he  drew  on  his  own  inven- 
ofTh"51168  tion.  But  if  he  has  given  us  Memmius's 
Memmius  own  WOR1S>  they  must  have  rung  in  the  ears 

of  many  an  honest  Roman  like  the  trumpet- 
notes  of  that  still  more  eloquent  tribune  whose  body,  ten 
years  before,  had  been  hurled  into  the  Tiber  For  he 
cast  in  the  teeth  of  his  audience  their  pusillanimity  in 
suffering  their  champions  to  be  murdered,  and  allowing 
so  worthless  a  crew  to  lord  it  over  them.  It  had  been 
shameful  enough  that  they  had  witnessed  in  silence  the 
plunder  of  the  treasury,  the  monopoly  of  all  high  office, 
and  kings  and  free  states  cringing  to  a  handful  of 
nobles  ;  but  now  a  worse  thing  had  been  done,  and  the 
honour  of  the  Republic  trafficked  away.  And  the  men 
who  had  done  this  felt  neither  shame  nor  sorrow,  but 
strutted  about  with  a  parade  of  triumphs,  consulships, 
and  priesthoods,  as  if  they  were  men  of  honour  and  not 
thieves.  After  these  and  similar  home-thrusts,  he  called 
upon  the  people  to  insist  on  Jugurtha  being  brought  to 


ii i  B.C.  The  Jugurthinc  War.  73 

Rome,  for  so  they  would  test  the  reality  of  his  surren- 
der. The  tribune's  eloquence  prevailed.  The  praetor 
Cassius  was  sent  to  bring  Jugurtha  under  a  promise  of 
safe-conduct.  Jugurtha  hesitated.  Bestia's  officers  were 
treading  in  their  general  s  steps,  taking  bribes,  selling  as 
slaves  the  Numidians  who  had  deserted  to  them,  and 
pillaging  the  country.  Jugurtha  was  fast  becoming  the 
national  hero  instead  of  the  chief  of  a  faction,  and 
might  have  even  then  dreamt  of  defying  Rome.  How- 
ever, he  yielded  and,  as  it  was  not  in  his  nature  to  do 
things  by  halves,  came  in  the  mean  dress  which  was 
assumed  to  excite  compassion.  He  did  more.  This 
was  the  year  of  the  so-called  Thorian  law.  Caius 
Baebius,  who  may  have  been  the  author  of 
that  law,  was  tribune,  and  not  of  the  stamp  lomJ^to 
of  Memmius.  He  took  Jugurtha's  bribes,  ^°"ie'  ,and 

on  DCS  trie 

and  when  the  king  was  being  cross-ques-        tribune 

Baebius. 

tioned  by   Memmius,  interposed   his  veto, 

and  forbade  him  to  reply.     Thus  once  again,  though  the 

people  were  furious,  the  old  plan  seemed  to  be  working 

well. 

But  now  a  cousin  of  the  king,  named  Massiva,  a 
grandson  of  Masinissa,  at  the  instigation  of  the  consul 
Aldinus,  claimed  the  Numidian  crown.  In  the  present 
state  of  parties  he  was  sure  of  support,  so  Jugurtha  had 
recourse  to  the  second  weapon  which  he 
always  used  when  the  first  was  useless.  He  ™urd-er  of 

Massiva. 

had  him  assassinated  by  his  adherent  Bom- 
ilcar,  and  assisted  the  latter  to  escape  from  Italy.     At 
last  his  savage  audacity  had  overstepped  even  the  for- 
bearance of  the  rogues  in  his  pay.  He  was 

Jugurtha 

ordered  to  leave  Rome,  and,    as  he  went,       expelled 

,     ^,         r  •  ,t   A        'A.       f  from  Rome. 

uttered   the   famous   epigram,  '  A   city   for 

sale,  and  when  the  first  buyer  comes,  doomed  to  ruin ! " 


74  The  Gracchi,  Manus,  and  Sulla.        CH.  :v. 

It  is  possible  that  Spurius  Albinus,  who  was  next  sent 

against  him,  was  playing  the  game  of  Scaurus  and  Bestia 

over  again;   for  he  effected  nothing  in  his 

Futile  cam- 
paign of  campaign  in   110.      Nor  does  his  brothers 

rashness  exonerate  him.  Left  as  propraetor 
in  charge  of  the  army,  this  man,  in  January  109,  deter- 
mined to  try  and  cany  off  Jugurtha's  treasures  by  a  coup 
de  main.  To  do  this  he  marched  against  Suthul,  where 
the  treasures  were  kept,  at  a  season  when  the  heavy 
rains  turn  the  land  into  water.  Jugurtha  retreated  into 
the  interior,  enticing  Aulus  Albinus  by  hopes  of  coming 
to  terms,  and  meanwhile  tampering  with  his  officers. 
Then,  on  a  dark  night,  he  surrounded  the  army.  The 
traitors  whom  he  had  bribed  deserted  their  posts.  The 

soldiers  threw  away  their  arms,  and  next 
Jugurtha  fay  jugurtha  forced  Aulus  to  agree  to  go 

overthrows  J     J    t 

Aulus  under  the  yoke,  to  make  peace,  and.  per- 

Albmus.  .          J 

haps,  in  mockery  of  the  Senate  s  treat- 
ment of  the  Numidian  envoys,  to  leave  Numidia  in  ten 
days.  Of  course  the  Senate  would  not  acknowledge  the 
treaty.  Nor  did  they  even  go  through  the  farce  of  sur- 
rendering the  man  who  had  made  it.  The  chivalry  of 
the  era  of  Regulus  would  have  seemed  quixotic  to  cynics 
like  Scaurus.  The  other  Albinus,  hastening  to  Africa, 
found  the  troops  mutinous,  and  could  effect  nothing. 
Another  tribune  now  stepped  forward  to  impeach  all, 
whether  soldiers  or  civilians,  who  had  assisted  Juguitha 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  State.  In  spite  of  the  aid  of  the 
rich  Latins,  who  had  just  been  gratified  by  the  remission 
of  the  vectigal,  the  senators  were  beaten  and  the  bill 
passed.  Triumvirs  were  appointed  to  investigate  the 
matter ;  but  one  of  them  was  Scaurus,  sure  to  float 
most  buoyantly  where  the  scum  of  scoundrelism  was 
thickest.  The  judices  were  equites,  and  among  those 


CH.  iv.  The  Jugurtkinc  War.  75 

condemned  were  Bestia,  Sp.  Albinus,  Opi-       ^^^ 
mius,  and  Caius  Cato,  the  grandson  of  Cato       who  had 
the  censor.     Opimius  died  at  Dyrrhachium,       junurtha's 
a  poor  man ;  and  probably  no  harder  pun- 
ishment could  have  befallen  him. 

The  history  of  the  Jugurthine  war  has  been  thus  far 
related  at  greater  length  than  the  space  at  command 
would  warrant  if  it  was  merely  a  history  of  military  de- 
tails. But  it  is  a  striking  commentary  on  the  politics  of 
the  time  and  the  vices  of  the  government.  The  state  of 
society  could  not  be  more  succinctly  summed  up  than  in 
the  words  with  which  Jugurtha  quitted  Rome.  What  was 
it  which  made  the  nobles  so  greedy  of  money  as  to  be 
lost  to  all  shame  in  hunting  for  it  ?  A  speech  supposed 
to  have  been  delivered  that  very  year  partly  answers 
the  question  :  "  Gourmands  say  that  a  meal  is  not  all 
that  it  ought  to  be  unless,  precisely  when  you  are  relish- 
ing most  what  you  are  eating,  your  plate  is  removed  and 
another,  and  better,  and  richer  one  is  put  in  its  place. 
Your  exquisite,  who  makes  extravagance  and  fastidious- 
ness pass  for  wit,  calls  that  the  *  bloom  of  a  meal.' 
1  The  only  bird,'  says  he,  *  which  you  should  eat  whole 
is  the  becafico.  Of  every  other  bird,  wild  or  tame, 
nothing,  unless  your  host  be  a  mean  fellow,  but  the 
hinder  parts  will  be  served,  and  enough  of  them  to 
satisfy  everybody.  People  who  eat  the  fore  parts  have 
no  palate."  If  luxury  goes  on  at  this  rate  there  will  soon 
be  nothing  left  but  for  them  to  have  their  meals  nibbled 
at  for  them  by  some  one  else,  to  save  them  the  toil  of 
eating.  Already  the  couches  of  some  men  are  deco- 
rated more  lavishly  with  silver  and  purple  and  gold  than 
those  of  the  immortal  gods/' 

If  the  war  up  to  this  stage  had  revealed  the  hopeless 
depravity  of  the  senatorial  government,  its  subsequent 


76  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  iv. 

course  revealed  what  shape  the  revolution  about  to 
engulf  that  government  would  assume.  The  consulship 
of  Marius,  won  in  spite  of  Metellus,  signified  really  the 
fall  of  the  Republic  aud  the  rise  of  monarchy,  while  the 
rivalry  of  Marius  and  Sulla  showed  that  supreme  autho- 
rity would  be  competed  for,  not  in  the  forum  but  the 
camp.  The  law  of  Manilius  necessitated  an  earnest 
prosecution  of  the  war.  Quintus  Caecilius  Metelius  was 
elected  consul  for  the  vear  100,  and  re- 

Metellus  .  "     .  y 

appointed          ceived  Numidia  as  his  province.     He  was  a 
command  stern,   proud  man;    but  if  in    his   childish 

Jugurtha  hauteur  he  had   a   double   portion    of  the 

His  charac-  foible  of  his  order,  he  was  free  from  many 
of  its  vices.  He  set  to  work  at  once  to  re- 
discipline  the  army ;  and  his  punishment  of  deserters, 
abominable  in  itself,  was  no  doubt  an  effective  warning 
that  the  new  general  was  not  a  man  with  whom  it  was 
safe  to  trifle.  The  Romans  were  never  gentle  to  the 
deserter  unless  he  deserted  to  them.  They  threw  him  to 
wild  beasts,  or  cut  off  his  hands.  Metellus  did  more. 
He  buried  3,000  men  to  their  waists,  made  the  soldiers 
use  them  as  targets,  and  finally  burned  them. 

Jugurtha  was  alarmed,  and  sent  to  offer  terms,  asking 
only  a  guarantee  for  his  life.  Metellus  returned  evasive 
answers,  and  secretly  intrigued  with  the  messengers  for 
the  surrender  or  assassination  of  the  king.  But  though 
assassination  had  become  one  of  the  recog- 
Sattillr  °u  i  nized  weapons  of  a  Roman  noble,  Metellus 

the  Muthul. 

was  a  novice  in  the  art  by  the  side  of  Jugur- 
tha, who  determined  to  die  hard  now  he  was  at  bay. 
The  Romans  had  to  cross  a  range  of  mountains,  after 
which  they  descended  into  a  plain  through  which  the 
river  Muthul  (probably  a  branch  of  the  modern  Mejerda) 
ran  eighteen  miles  off.  Between  them  and  the  river  was 


CH.IV.  The  Jugurthinc  War.  77 

hilly  ground — probably  a  spur  from  the  range.  On  this 
hilly  ground  the  king  posted  Bornilcar,  with  the  infantry 
and  elephants.  He  himself,  with  the  best  of  the  foot 
and  the  cavalry,  waited  nearer  the  mountains.  Metellus 
saw  the  snare,  but  was  obliged  to  get  water,  and  in 
making  for  the  river  was  surrounded.  But  the  new  dis- 
cipline told.  Though  isolated,  each  Roman  division 
fought  bravely.  Metellus  and  Marius  carried  the  hills. 
Rufus  dispersed  the  picked  infantry,  and  killed  or  cap- 
tured all  the  elephants.  Jugurtha's  plan  was  masterly, 
but  it  had  failed.  His  army  dispersed,  as  such  armies 
do  upon  defeat,  and  he  was  reduced  to  carrying  on  a 
guerilla  warfare,  spoiling  the  springs  where 
Metellus  was  marching,  and  cutting  off  keep-Tup  a 
stragglers.  Metellus  split  his  army  into  two  guerilla 

*  warfare. 

columns ;  Marius  commanded  one  and  he 
the  other,  and  so  they  marched,  ravaging  the  country 
and  capturing  the  towns,  ready  to  form  a  junction  when- 
ever it  was   necessary.     At   last  they  came  to  Zama ; 
and,  while  Metellus  was  attempting  to  storm  the  town, 
Jugurtha  surprised  his  camp.     Though  beaten  off  in  this 
assault  he  attacked  the  Romans  again  the  next  day,  and 
Metellus  was  obliged  to  give  up  his  enterprise.     After 
garrisoning  the  towns  which  he  had  taken,  he  went  into 
winter  quarters,  probably  at  Utica,  where  he 
proceeded  to  tamper  with  Bomilcar.     That      Ampere8 
traitor  urged  Jugurtha  to  surrender,  and  the      ™Jh  Bomil- 
king  gave  up  his  elephants,  the  deserters, 
and  a  large  sum  of  money.     But  when  it  came  to  giving 
up  himself  his  heart  failed  him,  and,  having  discovered 
Bomilcar's  treachery,  he  slew  him,  and  once  more  re- 
solved to  fight. 

The  preceding  military  operations  are  supposed  to  have 
taken  place  in  the  year  108  B.  c.     Marius  went  to  Rome 


78  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  iv. 

to  stand  for  the  consulship,  and  while  h« 

Marius 

stands  for  was  away,  in  107,  Metellus  retained  the 
ship,0?";11 "  command.  Jugurtha's  cause  even  now  was 

not  hopeless.  The  Numidians  adored  him, 
and  were  smarting  under  the  Roman  devastations.  The 

chief  town  occupied  by  the  Romans,  Vaga 
Revolt  of  — tne  modern  Baja — revolted  in  the  winter. 

Vaga. 

and  the  commander,  Turpilius,  a  Latin, 
rightly  or  wrongly  was  executed  by  Metellus  for  collu- 
sion with  the  enemy.  But  Metellus  was  eager  to  end 
the  war,  and  pressed  the  king  hard.  Jugurtha  lost  an- 
other  battle,  and  fled  to  Thala;  but  Metellus  marched 
fifty  miles  across  the  desert,  and  forced  him  to  flee  by 

night  out   of  the  town,   which   was   taken 

Bocchus  °  . 

joins  after  a  siege  of  forty  days.     But  now  a  new 

Jugurt  enemy  confronted  the  Romans.     Bocchus, 

king  of  Mauretania,  formed  an  alliance  with  his  son-in- 
law,  Jugurtha,  and  was  induced  by  him  to  march  against 
Cirta,  which  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Romans. 
About  the  same  time  Metellus  heard  that  Marius  was 
coming  to  supersede  him.  The  proud  man  shed  tears 
of  rage,  and  would  not  move  further  for  fear  of  hazard- 
ing his  own  reputation,  or  lessening  the  difficulties  of  his 
successor. 

The  African  war  now  promised  hard  work  and  little 

glory  or  profit  to  the  soldiers,  and  Jugurtha's  bribing 

.  days  were  over.     Hence  it  was  hard  to  re- 

ceeds  to  the      cruit  the  legions,  and  Marius  took  men  from 

the   Proletarii    and    Capite    Censi,   classes 

usually  exempt  from  service.     With  these  troops,  who 

would  be  more  easily  satisfied  and  more  manageable,  he 

filled  up  the  gaps  in  the  legions  in  Africa,  and  set  to 

work,  as  Metellus  had  done,  taking  towns  and  forts  and 

plundering  the  country.     Bocchus  had   separated  from 


CH.  iv.  The  Jugurthine  War,  79 

Jugurtha,  for  they  hoped  that  the  Romans  having  two 
foes  to  chase  would  be  the  more  easily  harassed.  But 
Marius  was  always  on  his  guard,  and  beat,  though  he 
could  never  capture,  Jugurtha  whenever  he  came  across 
him  There  is  an  oasis  in  the  south  of  Tunis,  and  a 
town,  Gafsa,  in  it,  which  in  those  days  was 
called  Capsa.  This  town  Marius  captured  caPsare  °f 
after  a  laborious  march  of  nine  or  ten  days, 
and,  though  the  inhabitants  surrendered,  he  ruthlessly 
massacred  every  adult  Numidian  in  it,  and  sold  the  rest 
as  slaves.  One  other  exploit  of  his  is  told  by  Sallust, 
but  with  such  blunders  of  geography  as  render  identifi- 
cation of  the  place  impossible.  Carrying  fire  and  sword 
through  the  land,  Marius  reached  a  fort  in  which  the 
king's  treasures  were.  It  stood  on  a  precipice,  which 
was  considered  inaccessible  on  all  sides  but  one.  For 
many  days  he  strove  in  vain  to  gain  the  walls  by  this 
road,  and  only  an  accident  saved  him  from  failure  in 
the  end.  A  Ligurian  in  the  army,  while  gathering  snails, 
unconsciously  got  nearly  to  the  top  of  the  hill.  Finding 
this  out  he  clambered  further  and  got  a  full  view  of  the 
town.  Next  day  Marius  sent  ten  men  with  horns  and 
trumpets  and  the  Ligurian  as  guide,  while  he  himself 
assailed  the  town  by  the  road.  As  soon  as 

. ,  ^    .  .  .          .  Capture  of 

they  were  at  the  top  he  ordered  an  assault        another 
on  the  walls.     The  men  marched  up  with 
their  shields  locked  over  their  heads,  and  at  the  same 
moment  the  Roman  trumpets  were  heard  at  the  side  of 
the  town  over  the  precipice.     The  Numidians  fled  and 
the  fort  was  won. 

Here,  wherever  the  place  was,  Marius  was  joined  by 
Sulla  with  some  cavalry  ;  and  having  gained      Marius 
his    end,    he    marched    eastward    towards      marches  fat 
Cirta,  intending  to   winter  his   men  in  the 


8o  The  Gracchi,  Marius  >  and  Sulla.       CH.  iv. 

maritime  towns.  But  the  Numidian  king  had  nerved 
himself  for  one  last  desperate  effort.  By  the  promise 
of  a  third  of  his  kingdom  he  bribed  Bocchus  to  join 
him,  and  one  night  at  dusk  surprised  the  retiring  army. 
Only  discipline  saved  it.  Like  the  English  at  Inker- 
mann,  the  Romans  fought  in  small  detached  groups,  till 
Marius  was  able  to  concentrate  his  men  on  a  hill,  while 
Sulla  by  his  orders  occupied  another  hard  by.  The  bar- 
barians surrounded  them  and  kept  up  a  re- 
juguTthato  vel  all  night,  deeming  their  prey  secure. 
marchsehis  But  at  dawn  Marius  bade  the  horns  strike 
up,  and  with  a  shout  the  soldiers  charged 
down  and  dispersed  the  enemy  with  ease.  Then  the 
march  went  on  till  they  were  near  Cirta.  Again  Jugur- 
tha  attempted  to  cut  off  the  retreat.  Volux,  son  of 
Bocchus,  had  brought  him  some  fresh  infantry.  While 
the  cavalry  engaged  Sulla,  Bocchus  led  these  men  round 
to  attack  the  rear.  Jugurtha,  who  was  fighting  against 
Masinissa  in  the  front,  rode  also  to  the  rear,  and,  hold- 
ing up  a  bloody  head,  cried  out  that  he  had  slain  Marius. 
The  Romans  began  to  give  way,  when  Sulla,  like  Crom- 
well at  Marston  Moor,  having  done  his  own  work, 
charged  the  troops  of  Bocchus  on  the  flank.  Still  Ju- 
gurtha fought  on,  and  fled  only  when  all  around  him 
were  slain.  The  result  of  this  battle  was  that  Bocchus 
became  anxious  to  come  to  terms.  Sulla  was  sent  to 
arrange  them.  But  Bocchus  hated  the  Romans,  while 
he  feared  them  ;  and  fresh  solicitations 
tiojufof"  from  Jugurtha  made  him  again  waver. 

Bocchus  Soon  afterwards,  by  permission  of  Marius, 

with  Kome.  *    r 

he  sent  an  embassy  to  Rome.  The  Senate 
replied  that  they  excused  his  past  errors,  and  that  he 
should  have  the  friendship  and  alliance  of  Rome  when  he 
had  earned  it.  Then  ensued  intrigue  upon  intrigue.  Sulla 


B.C.  105.          The  Cimbri  and  Teutoncs.  Si 

daringly  visited   Bocchus,  and  after  some 

Sulla  per- 

day's  hesitation,  during  which  Sulla  pressed        suades 

,   T  A,  Bocchus  t« 

him  to  betray  Jugurtha,  and  Jugurtha  press-  betray 
ed  him  to  betray  Sulla,  the  Moorish  king  at  Jugurtha. 
last  decided  on  which  side  his  interests  lay.  The  Roman 
devised  a  trap.  The  arch-traitor  was  ensnared,  and 
was  carried  in  chains  to  Rome,  where  he  was  led  in  his 
royal  robes  by  the  triumphal  car  of  Marius,  and,  it  is 
said,  lost  nis  senses  as  he  walked  along.  One  wonders 
with  what  relish  Scaurus  and  his  tribe,  after  gazing  at 
the  spectacle,  sat  down  to  their  becaficoes  that  day. 
Then  he  was  thrust  into  prison,  and  as  they  hasted  to 
strip  him,  some  tore  the  clothes  off  his  back,  while  others 
in  wrenching  out  his  earrings  pulled  off  the  tips  of  his 
ears  with  them.  And  so  he  was  thrust  down  naked  into 
the  T*:.llianum.  "  Hercules,  what  a  cold  bath  ! '  he  cried, 
with  the  wild  smile  of  idiocy,  as  they  cast  him 
in.  For  six  dpys  he  endured  the  torments  Death  of 

Jugurtha. 

of  starvation,    and   then    died.      The  most 

westerly  portion  of  his  kingdom,  corresponding  to  the 

modern  province  of  Algiers,  was  given  to 

Bocchus,  the  rest  of  it  to  Gauda,  Jugurtha' s         ^the""1 

half-brother.     The  Romans  did  not  care  to         Numidian 

e       ,  .  ,  kingdom. 

turn  into  a  province  a  country  of  which  the 
frontiers   were   so   hard   to   guard.     But   they   received 
some  Gaetulian  tribes  in  the  interior  into  free  alliance,  so 
that  they  had  plenty  of  opportunities  for  meddling  if 
they  wished  to  do  so. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CIMBRI   AND   TEUTONES. 

THE  Jugurtha  war  ended  in  105  B.  c.    In  one  way  it  had 
been  of  real  service  to  Rome.     A  terrible  crisis  was  at 
G 


82  The  Gracchi,  Marius  t  and  Sulla.        CH.  v. 

hand,  and  this  war  had  given  her  both  soldiers  and  a 
general  worthy  of  the  name.  Before,  however,  the  story 
of  the  struggle  with  the  Cimbri  is  told,  something  must 
be  said  about  what  had  been  going  on  at  Rome,  about 
the  man  who  had  now  most  influence  there,  and  about 
his  rivals.  The  great  social  struggle  had  recommenced. 
The  personal  rivalry  between  Marius  and  Sulla  had  be' 
gun  before  the  Cimbric  war.  During  that 
SenSTment  war  men  held  as  it  were  their  breath  in  ter- 
socla!  ror'  kut  nevertneless  it  was  as  if  only  an  m~ 


struggie  terlude  in  that  deadly  civil  strife,  for  which 

at  Rome.  _    ,  ,.  .  ,          , 

each  of  the  contending  parties  was  already 
arrayed.  C.  Marius  was  now  fifty  years  old.  Cato,  the 
censor,  was  of  opinion  that  no  man  can  endure  so  much 
as  he  who  has  turned  the  soil  and  reaped  the  harvest. 
Marius  was  such  a  man.  His  family  were  clients  of  the 

Herennii.     His  father  was  a  day-labourer  of 

Previous 

career  and  Cereatae,  called  to-day  Casamare,  after  his 
portion  Of  illustrious  son,  and  he  himself  served  in  the 
Marius.  ranks  in  Spain.  Soon  made  an  officer,  he 

won  Scipio's  favour  as  a  brave,  frugal,  incorruptible,  and 
trusty  soldier,  who  never  quarrelled  with  his  general's 
orders,  even  when  they  ran  as  counter  to  his  own  incli- 
nations as  the  expulsion  of  all  soothsayers  from  the 
camp  before  Numantia.  On  coming  home  he  was  lucky 
enough  to  marry  the  aunt  of  Julius  Caesar,  whose  high 
birth  and  wealth  opened  the  door  to  State  honours,  which 
to  a  man  of  his  origin  was  at  this  time  otherwise  virtual- 
ly closed.  In  119  B.  c.  he  was  tribune,  and  had  by  the 
measures  previously  noticed  won  the  reputation  of  an 
upright  and  patriotic  politician,  who  would  truckle  neither 
to  the  nobles  nor  the  mob.  From  this  time,  however, 
the  feud  with  the  Metelli  began  ;  for  he  ordered  L.  Cas- 
jilms  Metellus,  the  consul,  to  be  cast  into  prison  for  re- 


CH.  v.  The  Cimbri  and  2\ufones.  83 

sisting  his  ballot-law,  though,  as  the  Senate  yielded,  the 
order  was  not  carried  into  effect.  In  115  he  gained  the 
praetorship,  and  an  absurd  charge  of  bribery  trumped 
up  against  him  indicated  a  rising  disposition  among  the 
nobles  to  snub  the  aspiring  plebeian.  He  was  propraetor 
in  Spain  the  next  year,  and  showed  his  usual  vigour 
there  in  putting  down  brigandage.  With  the  soldiers  he 
was  as  popular  as  Ney  was  with  Napoleon's  armies,  for  he 
was  one  of  them,  rough-spoken  as  they  were,  fond  of  a 
cup  of  wine,  and  never  scorning  to  share  their  toils. 
While  he  was  with  Metellus  at  Utica,  a  soothsayer  pro- 
phesied that  the  gods  had  great  things  in  store  for  him, 
and  he  asked  Metellus  for  leave  to  go  to  Rome  and 
stand  for  the  consulship.  Metellus  replied  that  when 
his  own  son  stood  for  it  it  would  be  time  enough  for 
Marius.  The  man  at  whom  he  sneered  resented  sneers. 
There  is  evidence  that  the  simple  nature  of  the  rough 
soldier  was  becoming  already  spoiled  by  constant  suc- 
cess. He  was  burning  with  ambition,  and  would  ascribe 
the  favours  of  heaven  to  his  own  merits.  He  at  once 
set  to  work  to  undermine  the  credit  of  his  commander 
with  the  army,  the  Roman  merchants,  and  Gauda,  say- 
ing that  he  himself  would  soon  bring  the  war  to  an  end 
if  he  were  general.  Metellus  can  hardly  have  been  a 
popular  man  anywhere,  and  his  strictness  must  have 
made  him  many  enemies.  Thus  he  scornfully  refused 
Gauda  a  seat  at  his  side,  and  an  escort  of  Roman 
horse.  Gauda  and  the  rest  wrote  to  Rome,  urging  that 
Marius  should  have  the  army.  Metellus  with  the  worst 
grace  let  him  go  just  twelve  days  before  the  election. 
But  the  favourite  of  the  gods  had  a  fair  wind,  and  tra- 
velled night  and  day.  The  artisans  of  the  city  and  the 
country  class  from  which  he  sprang  thronged  to  hear  him 
abuse  Metellus,  and  boast  how  soon  he  would  capture  or 


84  The  Gracchi,  Man  us,  and  Sulla.        CH.  v. 

kill  Jugurtha,  and  he  was  triumphantly  elected  consul 
for  the  year  107. 

How  his  after  achievements  turned  his  head  we  shall 
see.  Already  there  were  drops  of  bitterness  in  the  sweet 
cup  of  success.  It  was  Metellus  who  was  called  Numi- 
dicus,  not  he,  and  it  was  Sulla  whose  dare-devil  knavery 
had  entrapped  the  king.  The  substantial  work  had 
been  done  by  the  former.  The  coup  de  theatre  which 
completed  it  revealed  the  latter  as  a  rival.  Marius 
fumed  at  the  credit  gained  by  these  aristocrats;  and 
when  Bocchus  dedicated  on  the  Capitol  a  representation 
of  Sulla  receiving  Jugurtha's  surrender,  he 
L  Cornelius  could  not  conceal  his  wrath.  In  Sulla  he 

ouiia. 

perhaps  already  recognized  by  instinct  one 
who  would  outrival  him  in  the  end.  He  was  the  very 
antipodes  of  Marius  in  everything  except  bravery  and 
good  generalship,  and  faith  in  his  star.  He  was  an 
aristocrat.  He  was  dissolute.  He  was  an  admirer  of 
Hellenic  literature.  War  was  not  his  all  in  all  as  a 
profession.  If  he  had  a  lion's  courage,  the  fox  in  him 
was  even  more  to  be  feared.  He,  like  Marius,  owed  his 
rise  partly  to  a  woman,  but,  characteristically,  to  a  mis- 
tress, not  a  wife,  who  helped  him  as  Charles  II. 's  sultana 
helped  the  young  Churchill.  If  Jhe  boorish  nature  of 
the  one  degenerated  with  age  into  bloodthirsty  brutality, 
the  other  was  from  the  first  cynically  destitute  of  feeling. 
He  would  send  men  to  death  with  a  jest,  and  the  cold- 
blooded, calculating,  remorseless  infamy  of  his  entire 
career  excites  a  repulsion  which  we  feel  for  no  other 
great  figure  in  history,  not  even  for  the  first  Napoleon. 
Sulla's  whole  soul  must  have  recoiled  from  the  coarse 
manners  of  the  man  under  whom  he  first  won  distinc- 
tion, and,  while  he  scorned  his  motives,  he  must,  as  he 
saw  him  gradually  floundering  into  villainy,  have  felt 


CH.  v.  The  Cimbri  and  Teutones.  85 

the  supreme  superiority  of  a  natural  genius  tor  vice 
But  at  present  it  was  not  his  game  to  show  his  animosity. 
Though  Marius  had  given  fresh  umbrage  to  the  opti- 
mates  by  coming  from  his  triumph  (Jan.  I,  104  B.  c.) 
into  the  Senate  wearing  his  triumphal  robes,  with  the 
people  he  was  the  hero  of  the  hour,  and  when  the  storm 
in  the  North  broke,  it  was  the  safest  course  for  Sulla  to 
follow  the  fortunes  of  his  old  commander,  who  in  his 
turn  could  not  dispense  with  so  able  a  subordinate. 

The  Romans  were  constantly  at  war  on  the  frontiers. 
Besides  the  natural  quarrels  which  would  arise  between 
them  and  lawless  barbarians,  it  was  the  interest  of  their 
generals  to  make  small  wars  in  order  to  gain  sounding 
names  and  triumphs.     Such  wars,  however, 
by  no  means  always  ended  in  Roman  vie-      w™sofr 
tories  ;   and  while  in  the  last  thirty  years  of      ^°^e  PJ"6^ 
the  second  century  before  the  Christian  era      Cimbnc 

invasion. 

there  were  many  wars,  there  were  also  many 

defeats.      Sempronius    Tuditanus    had   a    triumph    for 

victories  over  the  lapvdes,  an  Illvrian  na- 

rpi 

tion  ;  but  he  was  first  beaten  by  them.     In      inpydes. 

125   the   Salves,    a    Ligurian    people,    who 

stretched  from  Marseilles  westward  to  the  Rhone  and 

northwards  to  the  lJurance,  attacked  Marseilles.   Flaccus 

went  to  its  aid  and  triumphed  over  the  Salyes    TheSal 

in  123.     Quintus  Caecilius  Metellus  subdued 

the  Balearic  Islands  in  the  same  year,  and  relieved  Spain 

from  the  descents  of  pirates,  who  either  lived  in  those 

islands  or  used  them  as  a  rendezvous.     The 

Salyes  again  gave  trouble  in  122,  and  Cal-     islands*'63 

vinus  took  their  capital,   which  was   most 

probably  the  modern  Aix,  establishing  there  the  colony 

of  Aquae  Sextiae.     This  colony  was  the  point  d'  appui  for 

further  conquests.     The  most  powerful  nations  ot  Gaul 


86  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.        CH.  v. 

were  the  ^Edui  and  Arverni,  whose  territory  was  sepa- 
rated by  the  Elaver,  the  modern  Allier.  The  Arverni 
were  rivals  of  the  yEdui  and  friends  of  the  Allobroges, 
a  tribe  in  the  same  latitude,  but  on  the  east  of  the 
Rhone.  The  Romans  made  an  alliance  with  the  ^Edui, 
and  the  proconsul  Domitius  Ahenobarbus,  in  122  or  121 
b.  c.,  charged  the  Allobroges  with  violating  ^Eduan 
territory,  and  with  harbouring  the  king  of  the  Salyes. 

The  Allobroges  were  helped  by  the  Arverni, 
brtge^ll°"  and  Domitius  defeated  their  united  forces 

near  Avignon,  with  the  loss  of  20,000  men. 
Fabius  succeeded  Domitius,  and  marched  northwards 
across  the  Isara.  Near  its  junction  with  the  Rhone,  on 

August  8,  121,  he  defeated  with  tremendous 

The  Arverni.  ,         .  ,       ,       ,  ,        .     , 

carnage  the  Arverni  who  had  crossed  to  help 
the  Allobroges.  The  number  of  the  slain  amounted,  it 
is  said,  to  120,000  or  150,000.  The  king  of  the  Arverni 

was  caught  and  sent  to  Rome,  and  the  Allo- 
/rverni°  '  broges  became  Roman  subjects.  It  was  the 
B.C.  121.  year  of  the  death  of  Caius  Gracchus,  of  the 

famous  vintage,  and  of  a  great  eruption  of  Mount  Etna. 
In  ii8B.  c.  M.  Marcius  Rex  annihilated  the  Staeni,  pro- 
TheStaeni  bably  a  Ligurian  tribe  of  the  Maritime  Alps, 

who  were  in  the  line  of  the  Roman  approach 
to  South  Gaul,  and  for  this  success  he  gained  a  triumph. 
In  the  same  year  it  was  resolved,  in  spite  of  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  Senate,  to  colonize  Narbo,  which  was  the  key 
to  the  valley  of  the  Garonne,  and  was  on  the  route  to 
the  province  of  Tarraconensis.  Thus  was  established 
the  province  named  from  the  time  of  Augustus  the  Nar- 
bonensis,  embracing  the  country  between  the  Cevennes 
and  the  Alps,  as  far  north-east  as  Geneva:  and  a  road, 
called  Via  Domitia,  was  laid  down  from  the  Rhone  to 
the  Pyrenees.  In  117  B.  c.  L.  Caecilius  Metellus  tri- 


CH.  v.  The  Cimbri  and  Teutones.  87 

umphed  over  the  Illyrian  Dalmatic  whom  he   had   at- 
tacked without  cause,  or  never  attacked  at    , 

....  I  he  Dalmatae. 

all,  as  it  was  said,  for  which  he  was  sur- 
named    Dalmaticus.      In    115    M.   yEmilianus   Scaurus, 
whose  name  we  have  met  with  before,  triumphed  over 
the  Kami,  a  tribe  to  the  north  of  the  Adri- 

.,     _         .  The  Kami. 

atic.     C.  Porcius  Cato,  consul  in   114,  was 
not  so  lucky.     He  lost  his  army  in  defending  the  Mace- 
donian frontier  against  a  tribe  of  Gauls  called  Scordisci, 
who  were  in  their  turn  defeated  by  M.  Li-    _ 

.  *  The  Scordisci. 

vius  Drusus  in  112,  and  M.  Minucius  Rufus 
in  109  B.C.     The  year  between  their  first  victory  and  first 
defeat  was  remarkable,  not,  indeed,  because   Metellus 
triumphed  for  what  he  had  done  in  Sardinia,  and  another 
for  what  he  had  done  in  Thrace  ;  but  in  that  year  the 

Cimbri  came  in  collision  with  Rome.     Cn. 

First  collision 
Papirius  Carbo,  the  consul,  was  sent  against     with  the 

them  as  they  had  crossed  or  were  expected 
to  cross  the  Roman  frontiers.     Some  were   in  Noricum, 
and  to  them  he  sent  to  say  that  they  were  invading  a 
people  who  were  the  friends  of  Rome.     They  agreed  to 
educate  the  country  ;  but  Carbo  treacherously  attacked 
them,  and  was  disgracefully  beaten  at  a  place  calied  No- 
reia.     Four  years  later,  in  the  year  109,  M.  Junius  Sila- 
nus,  colleague  of  Marius,  met  the  same  barbarians,  who 
had  now  crossed  the  Rhine,  in  the  new  pro- 
vince of  South  Gaul,   arid  was   in  his  turn  Pffeat  of 

oiianus. 

defeated. 

The  movements  of  the  Cimbri  made  the  Helvetii 
restless.  One  of  their  clans,  the  Tiguroni,  which  dwelt 
between  the  Jura,  the  Rhone,  and  the  lake 

J  The  Cimbr? 

of  Geneva,  defeated   and  slew  the  consul        rouse  the 

_  .  .  ,   r  ,  ,  .     ,.  Helvetii. 

Longmus  in  107  B.C.,  and  forced  his  lieuten- 
ant, Popillius   Laenas,  to  go  under  the   yoke.     Tolosa 


88  The  Gracchi.  Marius,  and  Sulla.        CH.  v. 

thereupon  rose  against  the  Romans,  and  put 
Defeat  of  the  troops  which  garrisoned  it  in  chains. 

By  treachery  Q.  Servilius  Caepio  recovered 
the  town,  and  sent  oft"  its  treasures  to  Marseilles.  The 

ill-gotten  gold,  however,  was  seized  on  the 
The  gold  way  by  robbers,  whom  Caepio  himself  was 

accused  of  employing.  His  name  v/as  des- 
tined, however,  to  be  linked  with  a  great  disaster  as  well 
as  a  thievish  trick.  The  Cimbri,  who  had  hitherto  peti- 
tioned the  Romans  for  lands  to  settle  on,  were  now 

meditating  a  raid  into  Italy.  On  the  left 
Defeat  of  bank  of  the  Rhone,  in  105,  they  overthrew 

Scaurus.  *' 

M.  Aurelius  Scaurus,  whom  they  took  pri- 
soner and  put  to  death.  Cnaeus  Mallius  Maximus  com- 
manded the  main  force  on  that  side  of  the  river,  and  he 
told  Caepio,  who  as  consul  was  in  command  on  the  right 
bank,  to  cross  and  effect  a  junction.  But  Caepio  was  as 
wilful  as  Minucius  had  shown  himself  towards  another 
Maximus  in  the  Second  Punic  War.  When  his  superior 
began  to  negotiate  with  the  Cimbri,  he  thought  it  was  a 
device  to  rob  him  of  the  honour  of  conquering  them,  and 
in  his  irritation  rashly  provoked  a  battle,  in  which  he 

was  beaten  and  lost  his  camp.     The  place 

Defeat  of  ....... 

Caepio  and         of  his  defeat  is  not  known.     Maximus  was 
also  defeated,   and   the    Romans  were   re- 
ported to  have  lost  80,000  men  and  20,000  camp  fol- 
lowers.    There  was  terrible  dismay  at  Rome.    The  Gaul 
seemed  again  to  be  at  its  gates.     The  time 
tion.  at  °f  mourning   for  the   dead  was  abridged. 

Marius  Every  man  fit  for  service  had  to  swear  not, 

elected  con-      to  leave  Italy,  and  the  captains  in  Italian 

sul  for  104. 

ports  took  an  oath  not  to  receive  any  such 

man  on  board.     Marius  also  was  elected  consul  tor  104. 

But  fortune  helped  the  Romans  more  than  all  these 


CH.  v.  The  Cimbri  and  Teutoncs.  89 

precautions.      The    Cimbri,    after    wilfully    destroying 
every  vestige  of  the  spoils  they  had  taken, 

f  The  Cimbri 

in  fulfilment,  probably,  of  some  vow,  wan-        m0veoff 
dered  westward  on   a  plundering  raid  to-        «^n?S 
wards  the  Pyrenees,  the  road  thither  having 
been  lately  provided,  as  it  were,  for  them  by  Domitius. 
In  the  Ceitiberi  they  met  with  foes  who  sold 

J  Beaten 

too  dearly  the  little  they  had  to  lose,  and      back  by 

j    i        i  r-       j.i      r^       i          Ceitiberi, 

again  they  surged  back  into  South  Gaul,  they  are 
where  they  were  joined  by  the  Teutones,  {he^eu^ 
and  once  more  threatened  Italy.  But  mean-  Lonelir^ 

J      .  South  Gaul. 

time  the  generals  of  the  Republic  had  not 
been  idle.     Rutilius  Rufus,  the  old  comrade  of  Marius, 
had  been   diligently  drilling  troops,  having 
engaged  gladiators  to  teach  them  fencing.       .Romans 
Probably  Marius  was  engaged  in  the  same        occupied 
work  at  the  beginning  of  104,  and  then  went        meanwhile, 
to  South  Gaul,  where,  as  we  hear  of  Sulla  capturing  the 
king  of  the  Tectosages,  he  was  no  doubt  collecting  sup- 
plies and  men,  and  suppressing  all  disaffection  in  the 
province.     He  also  cut  a  canal  from  the  Rhone,  about  a 
mile  above  its  mouth,  to  a  lake  supposed  to  be  now  the 
foang  de  FEstouma ;    for   alluvial  deposits  had  made 
access  to  the  river  difficult,  and  he  wanted 
the  Rhone  as  a  highway  for  his  troops  and          consul  in 
commissariat.     In  103  he  was  made  consul  JSiuc 

for  the  third  time,  and  again  in  102.     And 
now  he  was  ready  to  meet  the  invaders. 

Who  these  invaders  were  has  been  a  matter  of  hot 
dispute.  Were  they  Celts  ?  Were  they  Teutons  ?  Did 
they  come  from  the  Baltic  shores,  or  the 

J  Nationality 

shores  of  the  Sea  of  Azof;  or  were  they  the        Of  the 

Homeric  Cimmerii  who  dwelt  between  the 

Dnieper  and   the  Don  ?     Or  did   their  name  indicate 


90  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.         CH.  v. 

their  personal  qualities,  and  not  their  previous  habita- 
tion ?  The  following  seems  the  most  probable  conjec- 
ture. In  the  great  plain  which  runs  along  the  Atlantic 
and  the  southern  shore  of  the  Baltic,  from  the  Pyrenees 
to  the  Volga,  there  had  been  in  pre-historic  times  a 
movement  constantly  going  on  among  the  barbarous  in- 
habitants like  the  ebb  and  flow  of  a  great  sea.  The 
Celts  had  reached  Spain  and  Italy  on  the  south,  and 
Germany  and  the  Danube  on  the  east.  Then,  making 
the  Rhine  their  frontier,  they  had  settled  down  into 
semi-civilized  life.  Now  the  Teutonic  tribes  were  in 
their  turn  going  through  the  same  process  of  flux  and 
reflux ;  and  impelled  probably  at  this  time  by  some  in- 
vasion of  other  tribes,  or  possibly,  as  Strabo  says,  by 
some  great  inundation  of  the  sea,  these  invading  na- 
tions, for  they  were  not  armies  but  whole  nations,  came 
roaming  southwards  in  search  of  a  new  home.  Celts 
there  were  among  them,  for  the  Helvetii  had  joined 
them,  and  therefore  Helvetic  chiefs.  But  the  names 
still  exist  in  modern  Denmark  and  near  the  Baltic. 
Caesar  did  not  think  they  were  Celts.  The  light  hair 
and  blue  eyes  of  the  warriors,  and  the  hair  of  old  age  on 
the  heads  of  children,  which  excited  the  astonishment  oi 
the  Romans,  are  not  Celtic  characteristics.  We  may 
therefore  set  them  down  as  Teutonic  by  race.  The 
name  Cimbri  is  probably  derived  from  some  word  of 
their  own,  Kaemper,  meaning  champions  or  spoilers, 
and  their  last  emigration  was  from  the  country  between 
the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  and  the  Baltic.  They  were  a 
tall,  fierce  race,  who  fought  with  great  swords  and  nar- 
row shields,  and  wore  copper  helmets  and 

The'r   mode  .  '  rr 

of  fighting,        mail.     The  men  in  their  front  ranks  were 

often  linked  together  so  as  to  make  retreat 

impossible.    Their  priestesses  cheered  them  on  in  battle 


CH.  v.  The  Cimbri  and  Teutones.  91 

and,  when  prisoners  were  taken,  cut  their  throats  over  a 
great  bowl,  and  then,  ripping  them  up,  drew  auguries 
from  their  entrails. 

The  plan  of  the  invaders  was  that  one  body,  consisting 
of  the  Teutones,   Ambrones,   and   Tugeni, 
should  descend  into  Italy  on  the  west,  the        **££!£* 
Cimbri  on  the  east.     Whence  the  Teutones 
had  come  to  join  the  Cimbri  we  do  not  know.     They 
joined  them  in  South  Gaul.    The  Ambrones 
may  have  been  a  clan  of  the  Helvetii,  as         Ambrones 
the   Tugeni   were.     Marius   waited  for   the 
western  division  at  the  confluence  of  the  Isara  and  the 
Rhone,  near  the  spot  where  Fabius  had  de- 
feated the  Arverni,  his  object  being  to  com-  Marius* 
mand  the  two  main  roads  into  Italy,  over 
the  Little  St.  Bernard  and  along  the  coast.     He  did  not 
follow  the  example  of  his  old  commander  Scipio  yEmili- 
anus,  in  expelling  soothsayers  from  his  camp ;  for  he  had 
a  Syrian  woman,  named  Martha,  with  him  to  foretell  the 
future.      The  soldiers  had  their  own  pet  superstitions. 
They  had  caught  two  vultures,  put  rings  on  their  necks 
and  let  them  go,  and  so  knew  them  again  as  they  hovered 
over  the   army.      When    the   barbarians    reached   the 
camp  they  tried  to  storm  it.    But  they  were  beaten  back, 
and  then  for  six  days  they  filed  past  with  taunting  ques- 
tions, whether  the  Romans  had  any  messages  to  send 
their   wives.     Marius  cautiously  followed,  fortifying  his 
camp  nightly.     They  were  making  for  the  coast-road ; 
and  as  they  could  not  have  taken  their  wagons  along  it, 
they  were  marching,  as  Marius  had  seen,  to  their  own 
destruction.     His  strategy  was  masterly,  for  he  was  win- 
ning without  fighting;  but  accident  brought 
on  an  engagement.     East  of  Aquae  Sextiae      battteof    ' 
(the  modern   Aix)  Marius  had  occupied  a      SeTtiL. 


Q2  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.         CH.  v, 

range  of  hills,  one  of  which  is  to  this  day  called 
Sainte  Victoire.  The  Arc  flowed  below.  The  soldiers 
wanted  water,  and  Marius  told  his  men  that  they 
might  get  it  there  if  they  wanted  it,  for  he  wished 
to  accustom  them  to  the  barbarians'  mode  of  fighting. 
Some  of  the  barbarians  were  bathing ;  and  on  their 
giving  the  alarm,  others  came  up,  and  a  battle  began. 
The  first  shock  was  between  the  Ambrones  and  Ligu- 
rians.  The  Romans  supported  the  latter,  and  the  Am- 
brones fled  across  the  Arc  to  the  wagons,  where  the  wo- 
men, assailing  both  pursuers  and  pursued  with  yells  and 
blows,  were  slain  with  the  men.  So  ended  the  first  day's 
fight. 

All  night  and  next  day  the  barbarians  prepared  for  a 
final  struggle.  Marius  planted  an  ambuscade  of  mounted 
camp-followers,  headed  by  a  few  foot  and  horse  in  some 
ravines  on  the  enemy's  rear.  He  drew  the  legions  up 
in  front  of  the  camp,  and  the  cavalry  went 
stances  "of  ahead  to  the  plain.  The  barbarians  charged 
the  battle.  up  fae  ^ill,  but  were  met  by  a  shower  of 
"  pila,"  which  the  legionaries  followed  up  by  coming  to 
close  quarters  with  their  swords.  The  enemy  were  rolled 
back  down  the  hill,  and  at  the  same  time  with  loud 
cries  the  ambuscade  attacked  them  from  behind.  Then 
the  battle  became  a  butchery,  in  which,  it  was  said, 
200,000  men  were  slain,  and  among  them  Teutoboduus, 
their  king.  Others,  however,  say  that  he  was  taken  pri- 
soner, and  became  the  chief  ornament  of  Marius's 
triumph.  Much  of  the  spoil  was  gathered  together  to  be 
burnt,  and  Marius,  as  the  army  stood  round,  was  just 
lighting  the  heap,  when  men  came  riding  at  full  speed 
and  told  him  he  was  elected  consul  for  the  fifth  time. 
The  soldiers  set  up  a  joyful  cheer,  and  his  officers 
crowned  him  -vith  a  chaplet  of  bay.  The  name  of  the 


ctf.  v.  The  Cimbri  and  Teutones.  93 

village  of  Pourrieres  (Campus  de  Putridus)  and  the  hill 
of  Sainte  Victoire  commemorate  this  great  fight  to  our 
day,  and  till  the  French  Revolution  a  procession  used  to 
be  made  by  the  neighbouring  villagers  every  year  to  the 
hill,  where  a  bonfire  was  lit,  round  which  they  paraded, 
crowned  with  flowers,  and  shouting  "  Victoire,  Victoire  !** 
Meanwhile  Catulus  was  waiting  for  the  Cimbri  on  the 
east.     A  son  of  M.  yEmilius  Scaurus  fled  before  them 
in  the  pass  of  Tridentum,  and  in  102  B.  c., 
about  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Aquse  Sextise, 
they  poured  down  the  valley  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Athesis  (Adige).     Catulus  was  posted  just 
below  Verona  on  the  west  bank,   with   a        c,atulAU^-on 

the  Adige. 

bridge  connecting  him  with  a  smaller  force 
on  the  other  side.  When  the  foe  appeared  his  men  took 
to  flight ;  but  the  detachment  on  the  east  side  stood  its 
ground,  and  kept  the  enemy  from  crossing  the  bridge  in 
pursuit.  The  Cimbri  admired  their  bravery,  and  when 
they  had  forced  the  bridge  let  its  defenders  go.  Pursu- 
ing Catulus,  they  cut  him  off  from  a  river  for  which  he 
was  making,  probably  the  Ticinus,  though  according  to 
some,  the  Po.  He  then  pretended  to  encamp  on  a  hill 
as  if  for  a  long  stay.  The  Cimbri  dispersed  over  the 
country,  and  Catulus  immediately  came  down,  assaulted 
their  camp  and  crossed  the  river,  where  he  was  joined 
by  the  victorious  army  of  Gaul  and  by  Marius,  who  had 
been  to  Rome.  The  village  festival  on  the  hill  of  Sainte 
Victoire  was  held  in  May.  The  battle  with  the  Cimbri 
was  fought  on  July  30,  101.  More  than  a  year  there- 
fore had  elapsed  since  the  Teiuones  were 
defeated.  But  it  was  the  barbarians'  cus-  the  Cimbri! 
torn  not  to  fight  in  winter,  and  they  were  in  Ju'y  3°, 
a  rich  country  which  had  not  been  invaded 
for  a-  century,  where  they  were  revelling. in  unwonted 


94  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  v. 

comforts.  So  they  spread  themselves  over  the  land  as 
far  as  the  Sesia ;  and  when  Marius  came,  they  sent,  it  is 
said,  and  asked  for  land  for  the  Teutones 
Ombrkf  the  whom  they  were  awaiting.  Marius  replied 
embassy  to  that  their  brothers  had  all  the  land  they 

Marius.  11  TT  1-11 

wanted  already.  Upon  which  they  requested 
him  to  name  a  field  and  a  day  for  battle.  Marius 
answered  that  Romans  never  consulted  their  foes  on 
such  points,  but  he  would  humour  them,  and  named  the 
Campi  Raudii,  near  Vercellae.  Such  a  story  bears  false- 
hood on  the  face  of  it.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  the 
Cimbri  had  not  heard  of  the  defeat  of  the  Teutones, 
which  had  taken  place  more  than  a  year  before.  Very 
likely  they  asked  for  land,  and  finding  that  they  would 
only  get  hard  blows,  determined  to  bring  matters  to  a 
crisis  at  once.  Sulla's  memoirs  were  Plutarch's  autho- 
rity for  what  followed,  and  Sulla  hated  Marius.  He  said 
that  Marius,  expecting  that  the  fighting  would  be  on  the 
wings,  posted  his  own  men  there,  that  they 
Marius°s  might  gain  the  glory,  but  that  the  brunt  of 

jealousy  of         the  battle  was  borne  by  Catulus  in  the  cen- 

Catulus. 

tre  ;  and  that  such  a  dust  rose  that  Marius 
was  for  a  long  time  out  of  the  battle,  and  knew  not 
where  he  was.  It  seems  that  the  barbarian  cavalry 
feigned  a  flight,  hoping  to  turn  and  take  the  Romans 
between  themselves  and  their  infantry.  But  the  Ro- 
mans drove  back  the  cavalry  on  the  infantry.  However 
this  may  be,  Marius  had  shown  his  usual  good  general- 
ship. He  had  fed  his  men  before  the  battle,  and  so 
manoeuvred  that  sun,  wind,  and  dust  were  in  the  ene- 
Circum-  niy's  faces.  His  own  men  were  in  perfect 

stances  of         training,  and  in  the  burning  heat  did  not  turn 

the  battle.  ,      .          _.         .        _  _       ,  .     - 

a  hair.  But  the  Northmen  were  fresh  from 
high  living,  and  could  not  bear  up  long.  When  they 


CH.  vi.  The  Roman  Army.  95 

gave  way,  the  same  scenes  as  at  Aquae  Sextiae  took 
place  among  the  women.  One  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  men,  it  is  said,  were  killed— among  them  the 
gallant  Boiorix,  their  king — and  60,000  taken  prisoners. 
Disputes  rose  as  to  who  had  really  won  the  day.  Marius 
generously  insisted  on  Catulus  sharing  his  triumph. 
But  it  was  to  him  that  the  popular  voice  ascribed  the 
victory,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  popular 
voice  was  right. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   ROMAN   ARMY. 

WHILE  Rome  was  trembling  for  the  issue  of  the  war 
with  the  Cimbri,  she  was  forced  to  send  an  army  else- 
where.    There  was  at  this  time  another  gen- 
eral stir  among  the  slave  population.    There 
were  risings  at  Nuceria,   at  Capua,  in  the 
silver  mines  of  Attica,  and  at  Thurii,  and  the  last  was 
headed  by  a  Roman  eques,  named  Minucius  or  Vet- 
tius.     He  wanted  to  buy  a  female  slave;  and,  failing  to 
raise  the  money  which  was  her  price,  armed  his  own 
slaves,  was  joined   by  others,    assumed  the   state   and 
title  of  king,  and  fortified  a  camp,  being-  at  the  head  of 
3, 500  men.     Lucullus,  the  praetor,  marched  against  him 
with  4,400  men  ;  but  though  superior  in  numbers,  he 
preferred   Jugurthine  tactics,    and  bribed   a  Greek    to 
betray  Vettius,  who  anticipated  a  worse  fate 
by   suicide.      But,   as    before,   the    fiercest 
outbreak    was    in     Sicily.       Marius     had         s?cii°n  in 
applied   for  men   for  his  levies    to    Nico- 
medes,  king  of  Bithynia,  who  replied  that  he  had  none 


96  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.VI. 

to  send,  because  the  Roman  publican!  had  carried  off 
most  of  his  subjects  and  sold  them  as  slaves.    There- 
upon the  Senate  issued  orders  that  no  free  member  of  an 
allied  state  should  be  kept  as  a  slave  in  a  Ro- 

WeaVness  r 

ofLHnius         man  province.    P.  Licimus  Nerva,  governor 

of  Sicily,  in  accordance  with  these  orders,  set 
free  a  number  of  Sicilian  slaves ;  but,  worked  on  by  the 
indignation  of  the  proprietors,  he  backed  out  of  what  he 
had  begun  to  do,  and,  having  raised  the  hopes  of  the 
slaves,  caused  an  insurrection  by  disappointing  them. 
He  suppressed  the  first  rebels  by  treachery.  But  he  was  a 
weak  man,  and  delayed  so  long  in  attacking  another  body 
near  Heraclea,  that  wh~n  he  sent  a  lieutenant  to  attack 
them  with  600  men  they  were  strong  enough  to  beat  him. 

By  this  success  they  supplied  themselves  with 
elected  arms,  and  then  elected  Salvius  as  their  king, 

who  found  himself  at  the  head  of  20,000 
infantry  and  2,000  horse.  With  these  troops  he  attacked 
Morgantia,  and,  on  the  governor  coming  to  relieve  it, 
turned  on  him  and  routed  him  ;  and  by  proclaiming  that 
anyone  who  threw  down  his  arms  should  be  spared,  he 

got  a  fresh  supply  for  his  men.     Then  the 

Athenion  r     .1  T  -i    i_ 

heads  the         slaves   of   the   west   rose   near   Lilybasum, 
thTwest  headed  by  Athenion,  a  Cilician  robber-cap- 

tain before  he  was  a  slave,  and  a  man  of 
great  courage  and  capacity,  who  pretended  to  be  a  ma- 
gician and  was  elected  king.     Salvius  took  the  name  of 
Tryphon,  a  usurper  of  the  Syrian  throne  in 
talceTrtie  *49-     Athenion,  deferring  to  his  authority, 

Tr-mehon  became  his  general,  and  Triocala,  supposed 

to  be  near  the  modern  Calata  Bellotta,  was 
their  head-quarters.  In  some  respects  this  second  slave 
revolt  was  a  repetition  of  the  first.  As  the  Cilician  Cleon 
submitted  to  the  impostor  Eunous,  who  called  himself 


CH.  vi.  The  Roman  Arm".  97 

Antiochus,  so  now  the  Cilician  Athenion  submitted  to 
the  impostor  Salvius,  who  called  himself  Tryphon.    The 
outbreak  had   probably   begun  in   105,  but 
it  was  not  till    103  that   Lucullus,  who  had  ^TuT 

put  down   Vettius,  was  sent  to  Sicily  with  Sicily» 

103  B.  C. 

1, 600   or  1,700  men.     Tryphon,  distrusting 

Athenion,  had  put  him  in  prison.     But  he  released  him 

now,  and   at  Scirthaea   a  great  battle   was 

fought,  in  which  20,000  slaves  were  slain,  Battle  of 

Scirthaea, 

and  Athenion  was  left  for  dead.  Lucullus, 
however,  delayed  to  attack  Triocala,  and  did  nothing 
more,  unless  he  destroyed  his  own  military  stores  in 
order  to  injure  his  successor  C.  Servilius,  To  say  that  if 
he  did  so,  such  mean  treason  could  only  happen  in  a 
government  where  place  depends  on  a  popular  vote,  is 
a  random  criticism,  for,  though  nominally  open  to  all, 
the  consulship  was  virtually  closed,  except  to  a  few 
families,  which  retained  now,  as  they  had  always  done, 
the  high  offices  in  their  own  hands,  and,  when  Marius 
forced  this  close  circle,  Metellus  is  said  to  have  acted 
much  as  Lucullus  did. 

Servilius  was  incapable.  Athenion,  who  at  Tryphon's 
death  became  king,  surprised  his  camp,  and  nearly 
captured  Messana.  But,  in  101,  M'.  Aquilius 

...  M'.  Aqui- 

was  sent  out,  and  defeated  Athenion  and  lius  ends 
slew  him  with  his  own  hand.  A  batch  of  the  war" 
i.ooo  still  remained  under  arms,  but  surrendered  to 
Aquilius.  He  sent  them  to  Rome  to  fight  with  wild 
beasts  in  the  arena.  They  preferred  to  die  by  each 
other's  swords  there.  Satyrus  and  one  other  were  left 
last,  and  Satyrus  after  killing  his  comrade  slew  himself. 
The  misery  caused  in  Sicily  by  this  long  war,  which 
ended  in  TOO  B.  c.,  may  be  estimated  by  the  fact  that, 
whereas  Sicily  usually  supplied  Rome  with  corn,  it  was 
H 


98  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  vi. 

now  desolated  by  famine,  and  its  towns  had  to  be  sup- 
plied with  grain  from  Rome. 

After  this   narration    of   the   military   events   of  the 

period  to  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  B.  c.,  it  is 

natural    to    consider   the   changes   which    Marius   had 

effected  in  the  army — the  instrument  of  his 

Changes  in  * 

the  Roman        late  conquests.     We  cannot  tell  now  many 
of  the   innovations    now    introduced   were 
initiated  by  him,  but  they  were  introduced  about  this 
elate.    Before  his  time  the  Hastati,  Principes,  and  Triarii, 
ranked  according  to  length  of  service,  had  superseded 
the  Servian  classes.     From  his  time  this  second  classifi- 
cation  also   ceased.     Every   legionary  was 
Arms  of  the       armed  alike  with  the  heavy  pilum — an  iron- 

le^ionary.  J    r 

headed  javelin  6  feet  9  inches  long,  the 
light  pilum,  a  sword,  and  a  coat  of  armour.  Besides 
these  he  had  to  carry  food  and  other  burdens,  which 
would  vary  according  to  the  length  and  object  of  the 
march,  such  as  stakes  for  encampment,  tools,  etc. 

Marius  invented  what  were  called  "  Mariani 
mufeT"1*"*11  m'uli"  to  ease  tne  soldier— forked  sticks, 

with  a  board  at  the  end  to  bear  the  bundle, 
carried  over  the  shoulders.  Before  his  time  the  army 
had  ceased  to  be  recruited  solely  from  Roman  citizens. 
„,  .  .  Not  only  had  Italians  been  drafted  into  it, 

The  light  * 

troops  but   foreign   mercenaries   were    employed, 

auxiliaries.  ,  r^,          .  .  r  .  T  . 

such  as  Thracians,  Africans,  Ligunans,  and 
Balearians.  After  his  time  the  Velites  are  not  men- 
tioned, and  all  the  light-armed  troop  were  auxiliaries. 

Before    his  time  the  maniple  had  been  the 

The  cohort 

the  tactical        tactical   unit.     Now  it  was  the  cohort.     A 
legion  consisted  of  ten  cohorts,  each  cohort 
containing  three  maniples,  and  each  maniple  two  cen- 
turies.    The  legion's  standard  was  the  eagle,  borne  by 


CH.  vi.  The  Roman  Army.  99 

the    oldest    centurion    of   the   first   cohort. 

T-       i          i  i       j    -^      «     •  »»  •  Composi- 

Each  cohort  had  its      signum,     or  ensign.         tion  of  the 
Each  maniple  had  its  "  vexillum,"  or  stan-         legion< 
dard.     There  were  two  centurions  for  each  maniple,  one 
commanding  the    first   and   the    other  the 
second  century,   and   taking  rank  accord- 
ing to  the  cohort  to  which  they  belonged, 
which  might  be  from  the  first  to  the  tenth. 
The  youngest  centurion  officered  the  second  century  of 
the   third   maniple    of  the    tenth   cohort.      The    oldest 
officered  the  first  century  of  the  first  maniple  of  the  first 
cohort,  and  was  called  "  primus-pilus,''  and  the  "  primi 
ordines,''  or  first  class  of  centurions,  consisted  of  the  six 
centurions  of  the  first  cohort.     These  corresponded  to 
our   non-commissioned   officers,   were   taken    from   the 
lower  classes  of  society,  and  were  seldom 
made  tribunes.     The   tribunes  were  six  to  ^llf 

tribunes. 

each  legion,  were  taken  from  the  upper 
class,  and  after  being  attached  to  the  general's  suite,  re- 
ceived the  rank  of  tribune,  if  they  were  supposed  to  be 
qualified  for  it.  The  tribunes  were  originally  appointed 
by  the  consuls.  Afterwards  they  had  been  elected, 
partly  by  the  people  and  partly  by  the  consuls.  Caesar 
superseded  the  tribunes  by  "legati"  of  his  own,  to  one 
of  whom  he  would  entrust  a  legion,  and  appointed  some, 
but  probably  not  all,  of  the  tribunes,  and  Marius,  it 
seems  likely,  did  the  same.  The  normal 
number  of  a  legion  had  been  4,200  men  and  Numbers  of 

the  legion. 

300  horse,  but  was  often  larger.     The  pay 

of  a  legionary  was  in  the  time  of  Polybius  two  obols  a 

day  for  the  private,  four  for  a  centurion,  and 

six  for  a  horse  soldier,  besida*  an  allowance 

of  corn.     But  deductions  were  made  for  clothing,  arms, 

and  food.     Hence  the  law  of  Caius  Gracchus  (cf.  p.  54) ; 


ioo  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  vi. 

but  from  the  first  book  of  the  Annals  of  Tacitus  we  find 
that  such  deductions  long  continued  to  be  the  soldier  s 
grievance.  Auxiliary  troops  received  an  allowance  of 
corn,  but  no  pay  from  Rome.  The  engi- 
The  neers  of  the  army  were  called  Fabri,  under 

engineers.  „,   ,     .    T  .  . .  ,,   , 

a  "  praefectus,  the  "  Fabri  Lignani  hav- 
ing the  woodwork,  and  the  "  Fabri  Ferrarii"  the  iron- 
work of  the  enginery  under  their  special  charge,  and  all 
were  attached  to  the  staff  of  the  army,  which  consisted 

of  the  general  and  certain  officers,  such  as 

the  legati,  or  generals  of  division,  and  the 
quaestors,  or  managers  of  the  commissariat.  One  ot  the 
most  significant  changes  that  had  sprung  up  of  late  years 
was  one  which  was  introduced  by  Scipio  ^Emilianus  at 

Numantia  —the  institution  of  a  body-guard, 
The  Conors  or  Conors  Prastoria.  It  consisted  of  young 

Praetona. 

men  of  rank,  who  went  with  the  general  to 
learn  their  profession,  or  as  volunteers  of  troops  specially 
enlisted  for  the  post,  who  would  often  be  veterans  from 
his  former  armies.  The  term  Evocati  was  applied  to 
such  veterans  strictly,  but  also  to  any  men  specially  en- 
listed for  the  purpose.  It  is  probable  that 
ejTites.  tne  ecluites  no  longer  formed  the  cavalry  of 

a  legion,  but  only  served  in  the  general's 
body-guard,  as  tribunes  and  praefects,  or  on  extraordi* 
nary  commissions.  The  cavalry  in  Caesar's  time  ap 
pears  to  have  consisted  entirely  of  auxiliaries. 

There  had  been  for  a  long  time  among  the  wealthier 
classes  a  growing  disinclination  for  service,  and  as 
the  middle  class  was  rapidly  disappearing,  there  had 
Disincli-  been  great  difficulty  in  filling  the  ranks. 

Sfrvtee'at  The  speeches  of  the  Gracchi  alluded  to  this, 

Rome.  and  jt  naci  been  experienced  in  the  wars  with 

Viriathus,  with   Jugurtha,  with  Tryphon,  and   with  the 


CH.  viz.  Saturninus  and  Drusus.  101 

Cimbri.     One  device  for  avoiding  it  we  have  seen,  by  the 
orders  issued   to  the  captains  of  ships  iii  Italian  ports. 
Among  Roman  citizens,  if  not  among  the  allies,  some 
property   qualification   had   been  required  in  a  soldier. 
Marius  tapped  a  lower  stratum,  and  allowed 
the  Capite  Censi  to  volunteer.     To  such  men          JJnoTtlH 
the  prospect  of  plunder  would  be  an  object, 
and  they  would  be  far  more  at  the  bidding 
of  individual  generals  than  soldiers  of  the   old  stamp. 
Thus,  though   obligation  to  service  was  not  abolished, 
volunteering  was  allowed,  and  became  the  practice ;  and 
the  army,  with  a  new  drill,  and  no  longer  consisting  of 
Romans  or  even  Italians,  but  of  men  of  all  nations,  be- 
came as  effective  as  of  old,  if  not  more  so,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  body  detached  from  the  State. 
The  citizen  was  lost  in  the  professional,  and        ceaseTto7 
patriotism  was  superseded  by  the  personal        bea  c'ltlzev 
attachment  of  soldiers  of  fortune,  who  knew 
no  will  but  that  of  their  favourite  commander  or  their 
own  selfishness.    Their  general  could  reward  them  with 
money,  and  extort  land  for  them  from  the  State ;  and 
when  Marius  after  Vercellae  gave  the  franchise  to  two 
Italian  cohorts,  saying  that  he  could  not  hear  the  laws  in 
the  din  of  arms,  he  was  giving  to  what  was  becoming  a 
standing  army  privileges  which  could  not  be  conferred 
by  a  consul,  but  only  by  a  king. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SATURNINUS  AND   DRUSUS. 

WITH  such  a  weapon  in  his  hand  Marius  came  back 
to   Rome,   intoxicated  with    success.     He  thought  hi? 


IDS  The  Gracchi,  Man  us,  and  Sulla.      CH.  vn. 

Attiiude  of        marches   in   two   continents   worthy   to   be 

Marius. 

compared  with  the  progresses  of  Bacchus, 
and  had  a  cup  made  on  the  model  of  that  of  the 
god.  He  spoke  badly ;  he  was  easily  disconcerted 
by  the  disapproval  of  an  audience  ;  he  had  no  insight 
into  the  evils,  or  any  project  for  the  reformation,  of  the 
State.  But  the  scorn  of  men  like  Metellus  had  made 
him  throw  himself  on  the  support  of  the  people  from 
whom  he  sprang;  and  they,  idolizing  him  for  his  daz- 
zling exploits  as  a  soldier,  looked  to  him  as  their  natural 
leader,  and  the  creator  of  a  new  era.  Indeed  it  needed 
no  stimulus  from  without  to  whet  his  ambitious  cravings. 
That  seventh  consulship  which  superstition  whispered 
would  be  surely  his  he  had  yet  to  win ;  and  in  all  his 
after  conduct  he  seems  to  have  been  guided  by  the  most 
vulgar  selfishness,  which  in  the  end  became  murderous 
insanity.  But  while  he  hoped  to  use  all  parties  for  his 
own  advancement— a  game  in  which  he  of  all  men  was 
least  qualified  to  succeed — other  and  abler  politicians 
were  bent  on  using  him  for  the  overthrow  of  the  opti- 
mates. 

The  harangues  of  Memmius  had  shown  that  the  spirit 
of  the  Gracchi  was  still  alive  in  Rome ;  and  now  Lucius 
Apuleius    Saturninus  took  up  their   revolu- 
tionary   projects  with   a  violence   to  which 
they  had  been  averse,  but  for  which  the  acts  of  their 
adversaries  had  become  a  fatal  precedent.     Of  Saturni- 
nus himself  we  do  not  know  much  more  than  that  he 
was  an  eloquent  speaker,  and  a  resolute  though  not  over- 
scrupulous man,  at  a  time  when  to  be  scrupulous   was 
equivalent   to    self-martyrdom    or   self-effacement.       In 
something  of  the  same  relation  in  which  Camille  Des- 
moulins   stood   to    Danton,  Caius    Serviliua 
Glaucia,  a  wit  and  favourite  of  the  people 


CH.  vii.  Saturninus  and  Drusus.  103 

stood  towards  the  sombre  and  imperious  Saturninus,  and 
both  hoped  to  effect  their  aims  by  the  aid  of  Marius.  If 
they  are  to  be  judged  by  their  acts  alone  we  can  hardly 
condemn  them.  They  tried  to  do  what  the  Gracchi  had 
attempted  before  them,  what  Drusus  attempted  after 
them,  and  what,  when  they  and  Drusus  had  fallen,  as 
the  Gracchi  had  fallen,  the  Social  War 
finally  effected.  No  historian  has  given  ^[rpoU^. 
sufficient  prominence  to  the  fact  that  it  was 
primarily  an  Italian  movement  of  which  each  of  these 
men  was  the  leader  ;  a  movement  of  unbroken  continuity, 
though  each  used  -his  own  means  and  had  his  own 
special  temperament  If  this  is  kept  in  view,  we  shall 
no  longer  consider  with  some  modern  historians  that  no 
event  perhaps  in  Roman  history  is  so  sudden,  so  uncon- 
nected, and  accordingly  so  obscure  in  its  original  causes 
as  this  revolt  or  conspiracy  of  Saturninus. 

Like  Cains  Gracchus,  Saturninus  represented  rural  as 
opposed  to  urban,  or  rather  provincial  as  opposed  to 
metropolitan,  interests.  Like  Cains,  too,  he  endeavored 
to  conciliate  the  equites ;  but  they  had  all  the  Roman 
prejudice  against  admitting  Italians  to  a  level  with  them- 
selves, and  the  attempt  to  play  off  party  against  party 
utterly  failed.  In  vain  Saturninus  tried  to  defy  opposi- 
tion by  enlisting  the  support  of  the  Marian  veterans. 
The  rich,  the  noble,  and  the  city  mob  united  against  him  ; 
and  when  he  seized  the  Capitol,  it  was  to  defend  himself 
against  all  three.  In  the  year  100  B.  c.  Marius  was  con- 
sul for  the  sixth  time,  Glaucia  was  praetor,  and  Saturni- 
nus was  a  second  time  tribune.  A  triumvirate  so  pow- 
erful might,  if  united,  have  overthrown  the  Constitution. 
But  the  vanity  and  vacillation  of  Marius  were  the  best 
allies  of  the  optimates  ;  and  it  was  no  grown  man,  but 
Caius  Julius  Caesar,  a  child  born  in  that  same  year,  who 


io4         The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.        CH.  VIL 

was  destined  to  subvert  their  rule.     Saturninus  had  been 

instrumental  in  securing  the  election  of  Marius   to  his 

fifth  consulship  in  102,  and  it  was  about  that 

The  Lex 

Serviiia.  time   that    the    Lex    Serviha  was   carried. 

tes  anc^t-fae  This  law  defined  the  liability  of  Roman 
judicia.  officials  to  trial  for  extortion  in  the  provinces, 

and,  by  a  process  of  elimination  (for  senators,  workers 
for  hire,  and  others  were  expressly  declared  ineligible), 
practically  left  to  the  equites  the  jurisdiction  in  such 
trials.  Whether  or  no  the  law  of  Gracchus  had  been 
repealed  by  another  Servilian  law — that  of  Q.  Servilius 
Caeoio — we  cannot  say  for  certain.  If  so,  the  second 
Servilian  law  repealed  the  first.  But,  whether  it  restored 
power  to  the  equites  or  only  confirmed  them  in  it,  in 
theory  it  left  the  office  of  judex  open  to  all  citizens,  for, 
while  it  excluded  so  many  citizens  that  in  practice  the 
judicia  were  closed  to  all  but  the  equestrian  class,  it  did 
not  assign  the  office  to  any  one  class  in  particular.  It 
also  provided  that  any  one  not  a  citizen  who  won  his 
suit  against  an  official  should  by  virtue  of  doing  so 

obtain  the  citizenship.  So  that  we  may 
purpose  of  trace  in  this  law  a  threefold  policy — an 
Servifia  attempt  (i)  to  relieve  the  provincials,  by 

making  prosecution  for  extortion  easy,  and 
even  putting  a  premium  on  them ;  (2)  to  conciliate  the 
equites ;  (3)  to  pave  the  way  for  the  overthrow  of  class 
jurisdiction  by,  nominally  at  least,  leaving  the  judicia 
open  to  all  who  did  not  come  under  specified  restrictions. 
Cicero  inveighs  against  Glaucia  as  a  demagogue  of  the 
Hyperbolus  stamp.  But  there  was  more  of  the  states- 
man than  the  demagogue  in  this  law. 

When  Saturninus  was  a  candidate  for  the  tribunate, 
he  and  Glaucia  are  said  to  have  set  on  men  to  murder 
Nonius,  another  candidate,  who  they  feared  might  use 


CH.  vn.  Saturninus  and  Drusus.  105 

his  veto  to  thwart  their  projects.  Marius  had  been  pre- 
viously elected  consul,  and  supported  Saturninus  in  his 
candidature,  as  Saturninus  had  supported  him.  Marius 
may  have  been  induced  to  enter  into  this  al- 

, .      '          .  t          «      •  .  r  Personal 

liance  by  the  desire  to  gratify  a  personal      reasons  for 
grudge,  for  the  rival  candidate  had  been  the      j^i^g  Sat- 
man   he   most   detested,   Q.  Metellus ;  and      urnin«s- 
the  first  measure  of  Saturninus  was    a  compliment  to 
him,  and  a  direct  blow  aimed  at  Metellus. 
This  was  an  agrarian  law  which  would  ben-        law'of  Sat- 
efit  the   Marius   veterans;  and   as   it   con- 
tained a  proviso  that  any  senator  refusing  to  swear  to 
observe  it,  within  five  days  should  be  expelled  from  the 
Senate,  it  would  be  sure  to  drive  Metellus  from  Rome. 
But  if  there  was  diplomacy  in  this  measure  of  Saturni- 
nus,  there  was  sagacity   also.      What  discontent   was 
seething  in  Italy  the  Social  War  soon  proved,  and  this 
was  an  attempt  to  appease  it.    Saturninus  had  previously 
proposed  allotments  in  Africa  ;  now  he  proposed  to  allot 
lands  in  Transalpine  Gaul,  Sicily,  Achaia,  and  Macedo- 
nia, and  to  supply  the  colonists  with  an  outfit  from  the 
treasure  taken  from  Tolosa.     Marius  was  to  have  the 
allotment  of  the  land.     There  is  a  difficulty  as  to  these 
colonies  which  no  history  solves.     They   were   Roman 
colonies  to  which  only  Roman  citizens  were  eligible,  and 
yet  the  Roman  populace  opposed  the  law. 
The  Italians,  on  the  contrary,  carried  it  by        ^t^his 
violence.     Some  have  cut  the  knot  by  sup-        agrarian 
posing  that  though  the  colonies  were  Roman, 
Italians  were  to  be  admitted  to  them.     But  there  is  ano- 
ther possible  explanation.     It  is  certain  that  many  Ital- 
ians passed  as  citizens  at  Rome.     In   187  B.C.   12,000 
Latins,  passing  as  Roman  citizens,  had  been  obliged  to 
quit  Rome.     In  95  B.  c.  there  was  another  clearance  of 


io6  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  vn. 

aliens,  which  was  one  of  the  immediate  causes  of  the 
Social  War.  Fictitious  citizens  might  have  found  it  easy 
to  obtain  allotments  from  a  consul,  whose  ears,  if  first 
made  deaf  by  the  din  of  arms,  had  never  since  reco- 
vered their  hearing.  However  this  may  be,  it  was  the 
rural  party  which  by  violence  procured  a  preponder- 
ance of  votes  at  the  ballot-boxes,  and  it  was  the  town 
populace  which  resisted  what  it  felt  to  be  an  invasion  of 
its  prerogative  by  Italians.  Marius  is  said  to  have  got 
rid  of  Metellus  by  a  trick.  He  pretended  that  he  would 
not  take  the  oath  which  the  law  demanded,  but,  when 
Metellus  had  said  the  same  thing,  told  the 
Metellus  Senate  that  he  would  swear  to  obey  the  law 

as  far  as  it  was  a  law,  in  order  to  induce  the 
rural  voters  to  leave  Rome,  and  Metellus,  scorning  such 
a  subterfuge,  went  into  exile. 

Another  law  of  Saturninus  either  renewed  the  corn- 
law  of  Caius  Gracchus,  or  went  further  and  made  the 
price  of  grain  merely  nominal.     This  law  was  no  doubt 
meant  to  recover  the  favour  of  the  city  mob,  which  he 
had  forfeited  by  his  agrarian  law.     But  Caepio,  son,  pro- 
bably,  of  the  hero  of  Tolosa,  stopped  the 
Saturntmis^       voting  by  force,  and  the  law  was  not  car- 
ried.    The  third  law  of  Saturninus  was  a 
Lex  de  Majestate,  a  law  by  which  anyone  could  be  pro- 
secuted for  treason  against  the  State,  and 

Law  of  treason.         ,  .    ,  •  .  -rii-          i  'it 

which  was  not  improbably  aimed  specially 
at  Caepio,  who  was  impeached  under  it.  It  seems  at  any 
rate  certain  that  of  these  laws  the  agrarian  was  the  chief, 
and  the  others  subsidiary ;  in  other  words,  that  he  and 
Glaucia  were  working  together  on  an  organized  plan, 
and  striving  to  admit  the  whole  Roman  world  into  a 
community  of  rights  with  Rome.  They  thought  that 
with  the  Marian  soldiers  at  their  back  they  would  be 


CH.  vii.  Saturninus  and  Drusus.  107 

safer  than  Gracchus  with  his  bands  of  reapers ;  and  so 
they  may  have  taken  the  initiative  in  violence  from 
•which,  both  by  past  events  and  the  acts  of  men  like 
Caepio,  it  was  certain  that  the  optimates  would  not 
shrink.  It  is  difficult  to  apportion  the  blame  in  such 
cases.  But  when  Glaucia  stood  for  the  consulship  of 
99,  and  his  rival  Memmius,  a  favourite  with  the  people, 
was  murdered,  an  attack  was  made  on  Saturninus,  who 
hastily  sent  for  aid  to  his  rural  supporters  and  seized  the 
Capitol.  He  found  then  that  in  reckoning 
on  Marius  he  had  made  a  fatal  blunder.  sllurninut 
That  selfish  intriguer  had  been  alarmed  by  seizes  the 

,.  .  Capitol. 

the  popular  favour  shown  to  an  impostor 
named  Equitius,  who  gave  out  that  he  was  the  son  of 
Tiberius  Gracchus,  and  who,  being  imprisoned  by 
Marius,  was  released  by  the  people  and  elected  tribune. 
He  may  have  been  jealous  too  of  the  popularity  of  Sat- 
urninus with  his  own  veterans,  and  at  the  same  time 
anxious  to  curry  favour  with  the  foes  of  Sat- 

Manus 

urninus — the  urban  populace.  So,  instead  turns  on  his 
of  boldly  joining  his  late  ally,  he  became  the 
general  of  the  opposite  party,  drove  Saturninus  and  his 
friends  from  the  Forum,  and,  when  they  had  surrend- 
ered, suffered  them  to  be  pelted  to  death  in  the  Curia 
Hostilia  where  he  had  placed  them.  Saturninus,  it  is 
said,  had  been  proclaimed  king  before  his 

Death  of  Sat- 

death.     If  so  he  had  at  least  struck  for  a     urnmusand 
crown  consistently  and  boldly  ;    and  even 
if  his  attempt  for  the  moment  united  the  senatorial  party 
and  the  equites,  while  the  city  mob  stood  wavering  or 
hostile,  he  might  nevertheless  have  forestalled  the  em- 
pire by  a  century  had  Marius  only  had  half  his  enterprise 
or  nerve.     In  an  epoch  of  revolution  it  is  idle  to  judge 
men  by  an  ordinary  standard.     How  far  personal  ambi- 


io8  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  vn. 

tion  and  how  far  a  nobler  ideal  animated  Saturninus  no 
man  can  say.  Those  who  condemn  him  must  condemn 
Cromwell  too. 

For  the  moment  the  power  of  the  optimates  seemed 
restored.  The  spectre  of  monarchy  had  made  the  men 
of  riches  coalesce  with  their  old  rivals  the  men  of  rank ; 
and  the  mob,  ungrateful  for  an  unexecuted  corn-law, 
chafed  at  Italian  pretensions  Metellus,  the  aristocrat, 
was  recalled  to  Rome  amid  the  enthusiasm  of  the  anti- 
Italian  mob,  and  P.  Furius  was  torn  to  pieces  for  having 
opposed  his  return.  Marius  slunk  away  to  the  East, 
rinding  that  his  treachery  had  only  isolated 

Marius  falls  •'*•'• 

into  dis-  him   and  brought  him  into   contempt ;  and 

there,  it  is  said,  he  tried  to  incite  Mithridates 
to  war.  Sextus  Titius  indeed  brought  forward  an  agrarian 
law  in  99  B.  c.  But  he  was  opposed  by  his  colleagues  and 
driven  into  exile.  Two  events  soon  happened  which 
showed  not  only  the  embittered  feelings  existing  between 
the  urban  and  rural  population,  but  also  the  sympathy 
with  the  provincials  felt  by  the  better  Romans,  and,  as 
an  inference,  the  miserable  condition  of  the 
Licinia  provincials  themselves.  The  first  was  the 

enactment,  in  95  B.  c.,  of  the  Lex  Licinia 
Minucia,  which  ordered  Latins  and  Italians  resident  at 
Rome  to  leave  the  city.  The  second  was  the  prose- 
cution  and  conviction  of  Publius  Rutilius  Rufus,  nomi- 
and  the  pro-  nally  for  extortion,  but  really  because,  by  his 
sedition  of  just  administration  of  the  province  of  Asia, 

Rutilius  J  ^          r 

Rufus  he  had  rebuked  extortion  and  the  equestrian 

foreshadow  1-1  i  •          r^,  -, 

the  Social  courts  which  connived  at  it.  Though  most 
of  the  senators  were  as  guilty  as  the  equites, 
the  mass,  like  M.  Scaurus,  who  was  himself  impeached 
for  extortion,  would  ill  brook  being  forced  to  appear  be- 
fore their  courts,  and  be  eager  to  take  hold  of  their  mal- 


CH.  vii.  Saturninus  and  Drusus.  109 

administration  of  justice  as  a  pretext  for  abrogating  the 
Servilian  law. 

One  more  attempt  at  reform  was  to  be  made,  this  time 
by  one  of  the  Senate's  own  members,  but  only  to  be  once 
more  defeated  by  rancorous  party-spirit  and         DrusuP 
besotted  urban  pride.  Marcus  Livius  Drusus         attempts  a 
was  son  of  the  man  whom  the  Senate  had 
put  forward  to  outbid  Caius  Gracchus.  He  was  a  haughty, 
upright  man,  of  an  impetuous  temper — such  a  man  as 
often  becomes  the  tool  of  less  courageous  but  more  dex- 
terous intriguers.     M.  Scaurus  had  been  impeached  for 
taking  bribes  in  Asia,  and  it  is  said  that  in  his  disgust  he 
egged   on  Drusus  to  restore  the  judicia  to  the  Senate. 
Drusus  was  probably  one  of  those  men  whom  an  aris- 
tocracy in  its  decadence  not  rarely  produces. 
He  disliked  the  preponderance  of  the  mo-         Attitude  of 

JJrusus. 

neyed  class.  He  could  not  feel  the  vulgar 
Roman's  antipathy  to  giving  Italians  the  franchise,  for 
he  saw  it  exercised  by  men  who  were  in  his  eyes  infinite- 
ly more  contemptible.  He  disliked  also  and  despised 
the  vices  of  his  own  order.  Mistaking  the  crafty  sugges- 
tions of  Scaurus  for  a  genuine  appeal  to  high  motives, 
flattered  by  it,  and  the  confidence  of  the  Italians,  he 
thought  that  he  could  educate  his  party,  and  by  his  per- 
sonal influence  induce  it  to  do  justice  to  Italy.  But  this 
conservative  advocate  of  reform  was  not  wily  enough 
tactician  for  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  or  the  changes 
which  he  meditated.  His  attempts  to  improve  on  the 
devices  of  Saturninus  and  Gracchus  were  miserable 
failures ;  and  the  senators  who  used  him,  or  were  influ- 
enced by  him,  shrank  from  his  side  when  they  saw  him 
follow  to  their  logical  issue  the  principles  which  they 
had  advocated  either  for  selfish  objects  or  only  theoreti- 
cally. 


no  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.        CH.  vn. 

Whether  this  is  the  true  view  of   the  character  and 
position  of  Drusus  or  not,  we  may  feel  sure 
of  T>rususCt       that  he  was  m  earnest  in  his  advocacy  of 


!taiumshe          Italian  interests,  and  that  this  was  the  main 

object  of  his  reforms.  To  silence  the  mob 
at  Rome,  he  slightly  depreciated  the  coinage  so  as 

to  relieve  debtors,  established  some  colonies 
mo1?-10  the  ~~  perhaps  those  promised  by  his  father  — 

and  carried  some  law  for  distributing  cheap 
grain.  Senators  like  Scaurus  he  courted  by  handing 

over  the  judicia  once  more  to  the  Senate, 
tion  oTthe  while,  by  admitting  300  equites  to  the  Sen- 

ate, he  hoped  to  compensate  them  for  the 
wound  which  he  thus  inflicted  on  their  material  interests 

and  their  pride.     The  body  thus  composed 

was  to  try  cases  of  judices  accused  of  taking 
bribes.  But  the  Senate  scorned  and  yet  feared  the 

threatened   invasion  by  which  it  would  be 

severed  into  two  antagonistic  halves.  The 
equites  left  behind  were  jealous  of  the  equites  promoted  ; 

and  where  Drusus  hoped  to  conciliate  both 

Sop  to  the  .  ... 

senate  and  classes,  he  only  drew  down  their  united  ani- 
mosity upon  himself.  Even  in  Italy  his 
plans  were  not  unanimously  approved.  Occupiers  of 
the  public  land,  who  had  never  yet  been  disturbed  in 
their  occupation  —  such  as  those  who  held  the  Campa- 
nian  domain  land  —  were  alarmed  by  this  plan  of  coloni- 
zation, which  not  only  called  in  question  once  more  their 
right  of  tenure,  but  even  appropriated  their  land.  But 
though  the  large  land-owners  were  adverse  to  him,  the 
great  mass  of  the  Italians  was  on  his  side  ;  and  it  was 
by  their  help  that  he  carried  the  first  three  of  his  laws, 
which  he  shrewdly  included  in  one  measure.  Thus 
those  who  wanted  land  or  grain  were  constrained  to 


CH'.  vii.  Saturninus  and Drusus.  in 

vote  for  the  changes  in  the  judicia  also.  But,  as  there 
was  a  law  expressly  forbidding  this  admixture  of  differ- 
ent measures  in  one  bill,  he  left  an  opening  for  his  oppo- 
nents of  which  they  soon  took  advantage.  Chief  of 
these  opponents  was  the  consul  Philippus.  When  the 
Italians  crowded  into  Rome  to  support  Drusus,  which 
they  would  do  by  overawing  voters  at  the  ballot-boxes, 
by  recording  fictitious  votes,  and  by  escorting  Drusus 
about,  so  as  to  lend  him  the  support  which 

r  _,    ...  PhlhppUS 

an  apparent  majority  always  confers,  Philip-  opposes 
pus  came  forward  as  the  champion  of  the 
opposite  side.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  turncoat,  with  a 
fluent  tongue  and  few  principles.  He  had  no  sympathy 
with  the  generous,  if  flighty,  liberalism  of  the  party  of 
Drusus.  No  doubt  it  seemed  to  him  weak  sentimental- 
ism  ;  and  he  openly  said  that  he  must  take  counsel  with 
other  people,  as  he  could  not  carry  on  the  government 
with  such  a  Senate.  Accordingly  he  appealed  to  the 
worst  prejudices,  viz.,  the  selfishness  of  large  occcupiers, 
and  the  anti-Italian  sentiments  of  the  mob.  This  ex- 
plains his  being  numbered  among  the  popular  party, 
with  which  the  Italian  party  was  not  now  identical. 
Drusus,  when  his  subsidiary  measures  had  proved  abor- 
tive, grew  desperate.  As  his  influence  in  the  Senate 
waned  he  entered  into  closer  alliance  with  the  Italians, 
who,  on  their  part,  bound  themselves  by  an  oath  to  treat 
as  their  friend  or  enemy  each  friend  or  enemy  of  Dru- 
sus ;  and  it  is  conjectured,  from  a  fragment  of  Diodorus, 
that  10,000  of  them,  led  by  Pompaedius  Silo,  armed  with 
daggers,  set  out  for  Rome  to  demand  the  franchise,  but 
were  persuaded  to  desist  from  their  undertaking.  Mon- 
archy seemed  once  more  imminent ;  and  now,  as  in  the 
case  of  Gracchus,  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether 
the  attitude  of  the  champion  of  reform  was  due  to 


H2  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.      CH.  vm. 

Drusus  the  force  of  circumstances  or  to  settled  de- 

monarch,  sign.     But  Philippus  was  equal  to  the  occa- 

sion. He  induced  the  Senate  to  annul  the  laws  of  Dru- 
sus already  carried,  and  summoned  the  occupiers  of  the 
public  land  whom  that  law  affected,  to  come  and  con- 
front the  Italians  at  Rome.  A  battle  in  the  streets  would 
have  no  doubt  ensued ;  but  it  was  prevented 

Assassma-  . 

tion  of  by  the  assassination  of  Drusus,  who  was  one 

evening  stabbed  mortally  in  his  own  house. 
It  is  said  that  when  dying  he  ejaculated  that  it  would  be 
long  before  the  State  had  another  citizen  like  him.  He 
seems  to  have  had  much  of  the  disinterested  spirit  of 
Caius  Gracchus,  though  with  far  inferior  ability  ;  and, 
like  him,  he  left  a  mother  Cornelia,  to  do  honour  by  her 
fortitude  to  the  memory  of  her  son.  That  year  the  pre- 
sentiment of  coming  political  convulsions  found  expres- 
sions in  reports  of  supernatural  prodigies,  while. "signs 
both  on  the  earth  and  in  the  heavens  portended  war 
and  bloodshed,  the  tramp  of  hostile  armies,  and  the  de- 
vastation of  the  peninsula." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   SOCIAL   WAR. 

IN  the  previous  chapter  the  relations  now  existing  be- 
tween Rome  and  her  dependents  have  been  described. 
For  two  centuries  the  Italians  remained  faithful  to  Rome 
through  repeated  temptations,  and  even  through  the 
fiery  trial  of  Hannibal's  victorious  occupation.  But  the 
loyalty,  which  no  external  or  sudden  shock  could  snap, 
had  been  slowly  eaten  away  by  corrosives,  which  the  ar- 
rogance or  negligence  of  the  government  supplied.  It 


CH.  vin.  The  Social  War.  113 

is  clear  from  the  episode  of  Drusus  that  there  was  as 
wide  a  breach  between  Italian  capitalists  and 
cultivators,  as  there  had  been  between  Ro-        i^Ilan18  °* 
man  occupiers  and  the  first  clamourers  for        capitalists 

and  Italian 

agrarian  laws.     So,  at  the  outbreak  of  the        farmers 

TT      -i     •  IT-  •  i  ™  •!•  opposed. 

war,  Umbna  and  Etruna,  whence  Philippus 
had  summoned  his  supporters,  because  the  farmer  class 
had  been  annhilated  and  large  land-owners  held  the  soil, 
remained  faithful  to  Rome.  But  where  the  farmer  class 
still  flourished,  as'  among  the  Marsi,  Marrucini,  and  the 
adjacent  districts,  discontent  had  been  gathering  volume 
for  many  years.  No  doubt  the  demoralization  of  the  me- 
tropolis contributed  to  this  result ;  and,  as  intercourse  with 
Rome  became  more  and  more  common,  familiarity  with 
the  vices  of  their  masters  would  breed  indignation  in 
the  minds  of  the  hardier  dependents:  Who,  they  would 
ask  themselves,  were  these  Scauri,  these  Philippi,  men 
fit  only  to  murder  patriots  and  sell  their  country  and 
themselves  for  gold, that  they  should  lord  it  over  Italians? 
Why  should  a  Roman  soldier  have  the  right  of  appeal 
to  a  civil  tribunal,  and  an  Italian  soldier  be  at  the  mercy 
of  martial  law  ?  Why  should  two  Italians  for  every  one 
Roman  be  forced  to  fight  Rome's  battles  ?  Why  should 
insolent  young  Romans  and  the  fine  ladies  of  the  me- 
tropolis insult  Italian  magistrates  and  murder  Italians  of 
humbler  rank  ?  This  was  the  reward  of  their  long 
fidelity.  If  here  and  there  a  statesman  was  willing  to 
yield  them  the  franchise,  the  flower  of  the  aristocracy, 
the  Scaevolie  and  the  Crassi,  expelled  them  by  an  Alien 
Act  from  Rome.  They  had  tr.ed  all  parties,  and  by  all 
been  disappointed,  for  Roman  factions  were  united  on 
one  point,  and  one  only — in  obstinate  refusal  to  give 
Italians  justice.  The  two  glorious  brothers  had  been 
slain  because  they  pitied  their  wrongs.  So  had  Scipio. 
I 


ii4  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      91  B.  c, 

So  had  the  fearless  Saturninus.  And  now  their  last 
friend,  this  second  Scipio,  Drusus,  had  been  struck 
down  by  the  same  cowardlv  hands.  Surely  it  was  time 
to  act  for  themselves  and  avenge  their  benefactors. 
They  were  more  numerous,  they  were  hardier  than  their 
tyrants  ;  and  if  not  so  well  organized,  still  by  their  union 
with  Drusus  they  were  in  some  sort  welded  together,  and 
now  or  never  was  the  time  to  strike.  For  the  friends  of 
Drusus  were  marked  men.  Let  them  remain  passive, 
and  either  individual  Italians  would  perish  by  the  dag- 
ger which  had  slain  Drusus,  or  individual  communities 
oy  the  sentence  of  the  Senate  which  had  exterminated 
Fregellae. 

The  revolt  broke  out  at  Asculum.  Various  town* 
were  exchanging  hostages  to  secure  mutual  fidelity] 
Outbreak  of  Caius  Servilius,  the  Roman  Praetor,  hearing 
the  Social  that  this  was  sroincr  On  at  Asculum,  went 

War. 

there  and  sharply  censured  the  people  in 
the  theatre.  He  and  his  escort  were  torn  to  pieces,  the 
gates  were  shut,  every  Roman  in  the  town  was  slain, 
and  the  Marsi,  Peligni,  Marrucini,  Frentani,  Vestini, 
Picentini,  Herpini,  the  people  of  Pompeii  and  Venusia, 
the  lapyges,  the  Lucani,  and  the  Samnites,  and  all  the 
people  from  the  Liris  to  the  Adriatic,  flew  to  arms ;  and 
though  here  and  there  a  town  like  Pinna  of  the  Vestini, 
or  a  partisan  like  Minutius  Magius  of  ^Lclanum,  re- 
mained loyal  to  Rome,  all  trie-centre  and  south  of  Italy 
was  soon  in  insurrection.  Perhaps  at  Pinna  the  large 

land-owners  or  capitalists  were  supreme,  as 
The  allies  m  Umbria  and  Etruria,  which  sided  with 

who  remained 

faithful  to          Rome,  as  also  did  most  of  the  Latin  towns, 

the  Greek  towns  Neapolis  and  Rhegium,  and 

most  of  Campania,  where  Capua  became  an  important 

Roman  post   during   the  war.      The    insurgents,   em- 


CH.  VIII. 


The  Social  War.  115 


boldened  by  the  swift  spread  of  rebellion,  sent  to  de- 
mand the  franchise  as  the  price  of  submission.     But  the 
dogged  spirit  which  the  extremity  of  danger  had  ever 
aroused  at  Rome  was  not  dead.     The  offer      ^  ^^ 
was  sternly  rejected,  and  the  equites  turned      demand  me 
furiously  on  the  optimates,  or   the  Italian- 
izing section  of  the  optimates,  to  whose  folly  they  felt 
that  the  war  was  due.     With  the  war  the  hope  of  their 
gains  was  gone ;  and  enraged  at  this,  they 
took   advantage  of  the  outbreak    to  repay       ^tee°fth 
the  Senate  for  its  complicity  in  the  attempt       ^e>wof 
of  Drusus  to  deprive  them  of  the  judicia. 
Under  a  law  of  Varius,  who  is  said  by  Cicero  to  have 
been  the  assassin  of  Drusus  and  Metellus,  Italian  sym- 
pathizers were  brought  to  trial,  and  either  convicted  and 
banished,  or  overawed   into   silence.     Among   the   ac- 
cused was  Scaurus.     But  now,  as  ever,  that  shifty  man 
emerged  triumphant  from  his  intrigues.     He  aped  the 
defence  of  Scipio,  and  retired  not  only  safe,  but  with  a  dig- 
nity so  well  studied  that  but  for  his  antecedents  it  might 
have  seemed  sincere.    A  Spaniard  accused  him,  he  said, 
and  Scaurus,  chief  of  the  Senate,  denied  the  acccusation. 
Whether  of  the  twain  should  the  Romans  believe  ? 

For  such  prosecutions  there  was  indeed  some  excuse, 
fjr  the  prospect  was  threatening.     Mithridates  might  at 
any  moment  stop  the  supplies  from   Asia. 
The  soldiers  of  the  enemy  were  men  who          Perils  of 

J  the  ens  s. 

had  fought  in  Roman  armies  and  been 
trained  to  Roman  discipline  ;  they  were  led  by  able  cap- 
tains, and  were  more  numerous  than  the  forces  opposed 
to  them.  And  yet  the  war  must  be  a  war  of  detach- 
ments, where  numbers  were  all  important.  It  was  no 
time  for  hesitation  about  purging  out  all  traitors  or 
waverers.  But  the  courts  that  tried  other  cases  were 


1 1.6  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.       91  B.  c. 

closed  for  the  time.  The  distributions  of  grain  were 
curtailed.  The  walls  were  put  in  order.  Arms  were 
prepared  as  fast  as  possible.  A  fleet  was  collected  from 
the  free  cities  of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor.  Levies  were 
raised  from  the  citizens,  from  Africa,  and  from  Gaul. 
Lastly,  in  view  of  the  inevitably  scattered  form  which 
the  fignting  would  take,  each  consul  was  to  have  five 
lieutenants.  Lupus  was  to  command  in  the 
Generals  of  northern  district,  from  Picenum  to  Campa- 

Rome. 

nia.  Among  the  generals  who  acted  under 
him  were  the  father  of  Pompeius  Magnus,  and  Marius. 
Samnium,  Campania,  and  the  southern  district  fell  to 
Lucius  Julius  Caesar,  and  among  the  five  officers  who 
went  with  him  were  also  two  men  of  mark,  Publius  Lici- 
nius  Crassus  and  Sulla.  We  shall  see  how  by  an  ex- 
haustive process  the  Romans,  after  a  series  of  defeats, 
were  at  last  driven  to  employ  as  generals-in-chief  the 
two  rivals  who  were  now  subordinates  and  were  thus 
carefully  kept  aloof. 

The  confederates  on  their  part  were  equally  energetic. 
They  had  chosen  as  their  capital  Corfinium,  on  the  river 

Aternus  (Pescara),  because  of  its  central 
STel^pXal  position  with  reference  to  the  insurrection, 
of  the  con-  an(}  soon  made  it  evident  that  the  Roman 

federates. 

franchise  was  no  longer  the  limit  to  their 
aspirations,  but  that  they  aimed  at  the  conquest  of  Rome 
herself.  They  called  their  capital  Italica.  In  it  they 
built  a  forum,  and  fortified  its  walls.  They  issued  a  new 
•  coinage.  They  chose  two  consuls,  twelve 
the  con.  praetors,  and  a  senate  of  five  hundred,  and 

gave  the  franchise  to  every  community  in 
arms  on  their  side  They  mustered  an  army  of  100,000 
men,  rind  entrusted  the  command  against  Lupus  in  the 
north  and  west  to  Pompaedius  Silo,  with  six  lieutenants 


CH.  viii.  The  Social  War.  1 1 3 

under  him  ;  the  command  against  Caesar  in  the  south 
and  east  was  given  to  a  noted  Sammte,  named  Caius 
Papius  Mutilus. 

It  is  easier  to  get  a  general  idea  of  the  war  than  of  its 
details,  though  the  latter  are  not  without  interest.  The 
results  of  the  first  year  were,  in  spite  of  some  victories, 
most  unfavourable  to  Rome.  The  insurgents  were  en- 
couraged. The  insurrection  had  spread  to  Umbria  and 
Etruria,  and  the  Romans  had  at  one  time 
almost  despaired.  But  in  council  they  re-  survey  ol 
trieved  what  they  had  lost  in  the  camp.  A 
most  politic  concession  of  the  franchise  checked  all  fur- 
ther disaffection  in  the  very  nick  of  time.  The  revolt  in 
Umbria  and  Etruria  was  speedily  suppressed,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  second  year  of  the  war,  B.  c.  89,  the  insurrec- 
tion itself  was  virtually  at  an  end.  For,  though  the  Sul- 
pician  revolution  at  Rome  prevented  its  absolute  extinc- 
tion, and  some  embers  of  it  still  lingered  for  five  years 
more,  and  though  Roman  forces  were  still  required  after 
89  B.  c.  among  the  Sabines  in  Samnium,  in  Lucania,  and 
at  Nola,  the  war  as  a  war  ended  in  that 

.      .  Twofold 

year.  Consequently  we  may  divide  it  into  divMonof 
two  periods,  each  well  defined  and  each 
consisting  of  a  year,  the  first  in  which  the  confederate 
cause  triumphed  and  Marius  lost  credit;  the  second  in 
which  the  cause  of  Rome  triumphed,  and  Sulla  enhanced 
his  reputation  and  became  the  foremost  man  at  Rome. 

The  war  began,  as  was  natural,  with  an  attempt  to 
take  Asculum.    But  the  townsmen,  manning 
the  walls  with  the  old  men  past  service,  sur-      JtSt^ew  of 
prised  Cnaeus  Pompeius  by  a  sally,  and  de-      Attempt  on 
feated   him.      Subsequently   he   was   again      Asculum  by 

.  .          _,.  Pompeius. 

defeated  at  Falena  and  driven  into  Firmum, 

a  Latin  colony  which  held  out  for  Rome.     There   he 


1 1 8  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.       91  B.  c. 

stayed  till  Servius  Sulpicius  came  to  his 
d°feated  help.  On  the  approach  of  Sulpicius  he  sal- 

mtoFriTn  lied  out.  The  enemy,  taken  in  front  and 
mum-  rear,  was  routed,  and  Pompeius  began  the 

siege  of  Asculum.     It  was  not  taken  till  the  next  year, 

89,  and  only  after  a  desperate  battle  before 
reuTve^by  its  walls.  Judacilius,  who  had  come  to  re- 
|?]ficJ2**  lieve  the  town  of  which  he  was  a  native, 
Asculum.  though  the  day  was  lost,  forced  his  way  in- 

side the  walls,  and  held  out  for  several  months  longer. 
Finally,  when  it  was  impossible  to  protract  the  defence, 
he  had  a  pile  of  wood  made,  and  a  table  placed  on  it  at 
which  he  feasted  with  his  friends.  Then,  taking  poison, 
he  had  the  pile  fired.  When  the  Romans  got  in  they 
took  fearful  vengeance,  slaying  all  the  officers  and  men 
of  position,  expelling  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
confiscating  their  property.  Such  was  the  fate  of  the 
ringleaders  of  the  rebellion. 

As  Asculum  was  the  first  object  of  Roman  vengeance, 
so  the  confederates  directed  their  first  efforts  against  the 

towns  in  their  neighbourhood  which  refused 
federal  to  join  them.  Silo  assailed  Alba  and  Muti- 

Ewni  which  lus  ^ernia.  The  consul  Caesar,  sending 
cling  to  ahead  Marcellus  and  Crassus  into  Samnium 

Rome.  . 

and  Lucama,  followed  in  person  as  soon  as 
he  could.  But  he  was  beaten  by  Vettius  Scato  in  Sam- 
The  take  nium  with  the  loss  of  2,000  men.  Venafrnm 
jEsemia  thereupon  revolted ;  and,  though  one  ac- 

and  are  on  ,•  *-  ' 

jomed  by  count  says  that  bulla  relieved  /hsernia,  it 

was  at  best  only  a  partial  or  a  temporary  re- 
lief, for  it  capitulated  before  the  close  of  the  year.  How  the 
siege  of  Alba  ended  we  do  not  know.    Defeat 
defeated*  after  defeat  was  now  announced  at  Rome. 

Perperna  lost  4,000  men,  and  most  of  his 


CH.  vin.  The  Social  War.  119 

other  soldiers  threw  away  their  arms  on  the  battle-field. 
For  this  Lupus  deprived  him  of  his  com- 
mand and  attached  his  troops  to  those  of           Crassus 

Uufeated. 

Marius.     Crassus    was   beaten    in    Lucania 

and  shut  up  in  Grumentum,  which  was  besieged   and 

taken.      A    pleasant    story   is    told     about 

Grumentum 

some  slaves  of  this   town.      They  had    de-      taken  by  the 

seited  to  the  confederates,   and  when  the 

town  was  taken  made  straight  for  the  house  where  they 

had  lived  and  dragged  their  mistress  away, 

telling  people  they  were  going  to  have  their 

revenge  on  her  at  last.     And  so  they  saved      of  some 

*  slaves. 

her.      While   the   troops   of    Crassus   were 
cooped  up  in  Grumentum  Mutilus  descended  into  Cam- 
pania and  obtained  possession  of  Nola  by 

J  Nola  taken 

treason.     Two  thousand  soldiers  also  went        by  the  con- 
over  to  him.     The  officers  remained  loyal 
and  were  starved  to  death.     Stabiae,  Salernum,  Pompeii, 
Herculaneum,  and  probably  Nuceria  were 
taken  in   quick    succession  ;    and,   with  his        towtTwrni 
army  swollen  by  deserters  and  recruits  from        federateT"" 
the   neighbourhood,   Mutilus   laid   siege   to 
Acerrae.     Caesar  hastened  to  relieve  it.     But  Canusium 
and  Venusia  had  joined  the  insurgents,  and  in  Venusia 
Oxyntas,  son  of  Jngurtha,  had  been  kept  prisoner  by  the 
Romans.     Mutilus  now  put  royal  robes  on  him,  and  the 
Numidians  in  Caesar's  army,  when  they  saw  him,  de- 
serted in  troops,  so  that  Caesar  was  forced  to  send  the 
whole  corps  home. 

But  out  of  this  misfortune  came  the  first  gleam  of  suc- 
cess which  had  as  yet  shone  on  the  Roman 
arms.     Mutilus  ventured  to  attack  Caesar's      thefint 
camp,  but  was  driven  back  ;  and  in  the  re- 
treat  the  Roman  cavalry  cut  down  6,000  of 


».  jo  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  vin. 

his,  men.  Though  Marius  Egnatius  soon  afterwards  de- 
but is  after-  feated  Caesar,  this  victory  in  some  sort  dis- 
cards de-  sipated  the  gloom  of  the  capital ;  and  while 
the  two  armies  settled  again  into  their  old 
position  at  Acerrae,  the  garb  of  mourning  was  laid  aside 
at  Rome  for  the  first  time  since  the  war  began.  Lupus 
and  Marius  meanwhile  had  marched  against  the  Marsi. 
Marius,  in  accordance  with  his  old  tactics  against  the 
Cimbri,  advised  Lupus  not  to  hazard  a  battle.  But 
Lupus  thought  that  Marius  wanted  to  get  the  consulship 
next  year  and  reserve  for  himself  the  honours  of  the 
war.  So  he  hastened  to  fight,  and,  throwing  two  bridges 
over  theTolenus,  crossed  by  one  himself,  leaving  Marius 
Lupus  de-  to  cross  ky  tne  other.  As  soon  as  the  con- 
feated  by  sul  had  reached  the  opposite  bank,  an  am- 

the  Marsi.  ,  . 

buscade  set  by  Vettius  Scato  attacked  him, 
and  slew  him  and  8,000  of  his  men.  Their  bodies,  float- 
ing down  the  river,  told  Marius  what  had  happened. 
Like  the  good  soldier  that  he  was,  he  promptly  crossed 
and  seized  the  enemy's  camp.  This  disaster  happened 
June  11,  B.C.  90,  and  caused  great  consternation  in 
Rome.  But  at  Rome  small  merit  was  now  discerned  in 
any  success  gained  by  the  veteran  general,  and  Caepio, 
who  had  opposed  Drusus  and  was  therefore  a  favourite 
with  the  equites,  was  made  joint  commander  in  the 
north.  It  was  a  foolish  choice.  The  prudence  of  Marius 
and  a  victory  over  the  Peligni  gained  by  Sulpicius  were 
neutralized  by  the  new  general's  rashness.  Pompasdius 
Silo,  who  must  have  been  a  thoroughly  gallant  man, 
came  in  person  to  the  Roman  camp,  bringing  two  young 
slaves  whom  he  passed  off  as  his  own  children  and 
offered  as  hostages  for  the  sincerity  of  the  offer  he 
made,  which  was  to  place  his  camp  in  Caepio's  hands. 
Csepio  went  with  him,  and  Pompaedius,  running  up  a 


CH.  vin.  The  Social  War.  121 

hill  to  look  out,  as  he  said,  for  the  enemy,  gave  a  signal 
to   men  whom   he  had  placed  in  ambush. 
Caepio  and  many  of  his  men  were  slain,  and         £ated°  atd 
at  last  Marius  was  sole   commander.     He         |l*£  °y 
advanced  steadily  but  warily  into  the  Mar- 
sian  country.     Silo  tauntingly  told  him  to  come  down 
and  fight,  if  he  was  a  great  general.    "  Nay," 
replied  Marius,  "  if  you  are  a  great  general,      ^raur^ce  of 
do  you  make  me."     At  length  he  did  fight ; 
and,  as  he  always  did,  won  the  day.     In  another  battle 
the    Marrucinian   leader,  and  6,000  of  the 
Marsi  were   slain.     But   Sulla  was  at  that         |^ess  of 
time   co-operating  with  Marius,  having  ap- 
parently, when  the  Romans  evacuated  most  of  Cam- 
pania, marched  north  to  form  a  junction  with  him  ;  and 
beside  his  star  that  of  Marius  always   paled.     Marius 
had  shrunk  from  following  the  enemy  into  a  vineyard. 
Sulla,  on  the  other  side  of  it,  cut  them  off.     Not  that 
Marius  was  always  over-cautious.     Once  in  this  war  he 
said  to  his  men,  "  I  don't  know  which  are  the  greatest 
cowards,  you  or  the  enemy,  for  they  dare  not  face  your 
backs,  nor  you  theirs."     But  everything  he  now  did  was 
distrusted  at  home  ;  and  while  some  men  disparaged  his 
successes,  and  said  that  he  was  grown  old  and  clumsy, 
others  were  more  afraid  of  him  than  of  the  enemy,  with 
whom   indeed   there   was   some    reason    to      A  secret  un< 
think  that  he  had  too  good  an  understand-      derstanding. 

possibly, 

ing.     For  once,  when  his  army  and  Silo's      between 
were  near  each  other,  both   generals   and      XeoSn-""1 
men  conversed,  cursing  the  war,  and  with      federates, 
mutual  embraces  adjuring  each  other  to  desist  from  k. 
If  the  story  be  true,  it  is  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  Sen- 
ate's conduct,  inexplicable  except  by  political  reasons,  in 
not  employing  Marius  at  all  in  the  following  year. 


122  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  vin. 

It  was  probably  at  the  close  of  this  year  that  the  re- 
volt of  the  Umbrians  and  Etruscans  took  place,  and  that 
Plotius  defeated  the  Umbrians,  and  Porcius 

SeVUmbfri-        ^ato  the  Etruscans-     On  a  general  review 
ans  and  of  this  piecemeal  campaign  it  is  plain  that 

Etruscans.  ,         _      '  .       .    , 

the  Romans  had  been  worsted.  On  the 
main  scene  of  war,  Campania,  they  had  been  decisively 
defeated,  and  the  country  was  in  the  enemy's  power. 
In  Picenum  and  the  Marsian  territory  the  balance  was 
more  even  ;  but  Lupus  and  Csepio  had  been  slain,  Per- 
perna  and  Pompeius  had  been  defeated,  and  on  the 

whole  the  confederates  had  carried  off  the 
Results  of  honours  of  the  war.  Now  Umbria  was  in 

the  first 

year  of  the      insurrection,  Mithridates  was  astir  in  Asia, 
and  there  were  symptoms  of  revolt  in  Trans- 
alpine Gaul.      A  selfish  intriguer  like  Marius  might  very 
likely  have  thought  of  throwing  in  his  lot  with  the  Ital- 
ians, for  theirs  seemed  to  be  the  winning  side.     But  on 
honester  men  such  considerations  produced 

The  party 

of  Drusus  quite  another  effect.  The  party  of  Drusus 
took  heart  again,  and  appealed  to  the  re- 
sults of  the  war  as  a  proof  of  his  patriotic  foresight  and 
of  the  moderation  of  his  counsels  They  got  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Varian  Law  into  their  own  hands,  and 
turned  it  against  its  authors,  Varius  himself  being  exiled. 
The  consul  Caesar  had  personal  reasons  for  being  dis- 
quieted with  the  war,  if  the  story  of  Orosius  be  true,  that, 
when  he  asked  for  a  triumph  for  his  victory  at  Acerrse, 
the  Senate  sent  him  a  mourning  robe  as  a  sign  of  what 
they  thought  of  his  request.  In  any  case  he  was  the 
author  of  that  Lex  Julia  which  really  termi- 
ji?faLex  nated  the  Social  War.  There  are  different 

accounts  given  of  this  law.  According  to 
Gcllius  it  enfranchised  all  Latium,  by  which  he  must 


CH.  vin.  The  Social  War.  123 

mean  to  include  all  the  Latin  colonies. 
According  to  Cicero  it  enfranchised  all  Italy  accounts  of 
except  Cisalpine  Gaul.  According  to  Ap-  the  law- 
pian  it  enfranchised  all  the  Italians  still  faithful.  In  any 
case  those  enfranchised  were  not  to  be  enrolled  in  the 
old  tribes  lest  they  should  swamp  them  by  their  votes, 
but  in  eight  new  ones,  which  were  to  vote  only  after  the 
others.  The  Lex  Julia  was  immediately  fol- 
lowed by  the  Lex  Plautia  Papiria,  framed  by  Plautia  X 
the  tribunes  M.  Plautius  Silvanus  and  C.  Papiria. 
Papirius  Carbo.  This  law  seems  to  have  been  meant 
to  supplement  the  other.  The  Lex  Julia  rewarded  the 
Italians  who  had  remained  faithful.  The  Lex  Plautia 
Papiria  held  out  the  olive  branch  to  the  Italians  who 
had  rebelled;  It  enfranchised  any  citizen  of  an  allied 
town  who  at  the  date  of  the  law  was  dwelling  in  Italy, 
and  made  a  declaration  to  the  praetor  within  sixty  days. 
In  the  same  year,  and  in  connection  no  doubt  with 
these  measures,  the  Jus  Latii  was  conferred  on  a  number 
of  towns  north  of  the  Po,  by  which  every  magistrate  in 
his  town  might,  if  he  chose,  claim  the  franchise.  Some 
of  the  free  allies  of  Rome  did  not  look  upon  the  Lex 
Julia  as  a  boon.  Heracleia  and  Neapolis  hesitated  to 
accept  it,  the  latter  having  special  privileges,  such  as 
exemption  from  service  by  land,  which  it  valued  above 
the  franchise.  Probably  these  towns  and  Rhegium 
made  a  special  bargain,  and,  while  accepting  the  fran- 
chise, retained  their  own  language  and  institutions.  The 
general  result  of  the  legislation  was  this.  All 
Italy  and  all  Latin  colonies  in  Cisalpine  f^e'law* 
Gaul,  together  with  all  allied  communities 
in  Cisalpine  Gaul  south  of  the  Po,  received  the  fran- 
chise. All  the  other  Cisalpine  towns  north  of  the  Po 
received  the  Jus  Latii.  A  general  amnesty  was  in  fact 


124  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  vin. 

offered ;  and  though  the  provisions  as  to  the  new  tribes 
were  unsatisfactory,  its  effect  was  soon  apparent. 

The  consuls  for  89  were  Lucius  Porcius  Cato,  whc 
took  command  of  the  army  in  the  Marian  district,  and 

Cnaeus  Pompeius,  who  retained  the  com- 
l''he second  mand  in  Picenum.  Caesar  was  succeeded 
year  of  the  in  Campania  by  Sulla.  Flushed  with  hope, 

the  confederates  opened  the  campaign  by 
dispatching  15,000  men  across  the  Apennines  to  join  the 
Etruscan  insurgents.  But  Pompeius  intercepted  and 

slew  5,000  of  them,  and  dispersed  the  rest, 

Successes  of  .... 

Pompeius  in  who,  even  if  they  had  reached  Etruria, 
would  have  found  they  had  come  on  a  boot- 
less errand.  He  followed  up  this  success  by  blow  after 
blow.  One  of  his  lieutenants,  Sulpicius,  crushed  the 
Marrucini  at  Teate.  Another,  Q.  Metellus  Piso,  subdued 
the  Marsi.  Pompeius  in  person  fought  a  great  battle 
before  Asculum,  as  before  related,  and  captured  the 
town ;  and  in  the  following  year  the  Peligni  and  Vestini 
submitted  to  him. 

In   the   south-east    of    Italy,    Cosconius,   the   praetor, 

burnt    Salapia   in  Apulia,    received   the    submission    of 

Cannae,    and   besieged  Canusium.     Marius 

or'cotc^nius       Egnatius  came  to  its  aid  ;  but  though  he  at 

i.i  the  first  drove  back  Cosconius  to  Cannae,  he  or 

south-east.  ,  . 

his  successor  was  defeated  and  slain  in  an- 
other fight,  and  Cosconius  became  master  of  all  Apulia 
and  the  lapygian  peninsula,  which  he  laid  waste  with  fire 
and  sword. 

While  the  Roman  supremacy  was  thus  re-established 
all  along  the  east  coast,  Sulla,  in  Campania,  was  equally 
Successes  of  triumphant.  He  recovered  Stabicc  in  April. 
fhe1  south-  an(*  k*s  lieutenant,  T.  Didius,  took  Hercu- 
west.  laneum  in  June.  Didius,  however,  lost  his 


CH.  vin.  The  Social  ]Var.  125 

life  in  the  assault.  Sulla  next  besieged  Pompeii,  de- 
feated Cluentius  who  came  to  its  aid,  again  defeated 
him  between  Pompeii  and  Nola,  and  a  third  time 
at  the  gates  of  Nola,  where  Cluentius  was  slain.  About 
this  time  Aulus  Postumius  Albinus,  while  in  charge  of 
the  fleet,  was  murdered  by  his  own  men,  recruits  pro- 
bably whom  he  was  bringing  from  Rome  to  Sulla's 
army.  Sulla  pardoned  the  mutineers,  saying  that  he 
knew  they  would  wipe  out  their  crime  by  their  bravery, 
and  they  did  so  in  the  fights  with  Cluentius.  By  such 
politic  clemency  and  never-varying  good  fortune  Sulla 
bound  the  army  to  his  own  interests. 

Leaving  Nola  behind  him,  he  crossed  the  Hirpinian 
frontier  and  marched  on  yEclanum.  The  townsmen, 
who  were  expecting  a  Lucanian  reinforcement  that  day, 
asked  for  time  to  deliberate.  Sulla  gave  them  an  hour, 
and  occupied  the  hour  in  heaping  vine  osiers  round  the 
wooden  walls.  Not  choosing  to  be  burnt  the  townsmen 
surrendered,  and  Sulla  sacked  the  place.  He  then 
marched  northwards  into  Samnium.  The  mountain- 
passes  were  held  by  Mutilus,  who  hemmed  in  Sulla  near 
yEsernia.  Sulla  pretended  to  treat  for  peace,  and,  when 
the  enemy  were  off  their  guard,  marched  away  in  the 
night,  leaving  a  trumpeter  to  sound  all  the  watches  as  if 
the  army  was  still  in  position.  He  seems  to  have  de- 
feated Mutilus  after  this,  and,  leaving  ^Esernia  behind 
as  he  had  left  Nola,  finally,  before  going  home  to  sue  for 
the  consulship  of  88  B.C.,  stormed  Bovianum.  He  had 
managed  the  campaign  in  a  bold  and  able  way,  where 
less  daring  generalship  might  have  failed. 

As  the  insurrection  was  thus"  being  stamped  out  on 
either  coast,  Bovianum  had  become  the  capital  of 
the  insurgents  instead  of  Corfinium.  Now  Bovianum 
was  taken,  and  ^sernia  became  its  centre.  The  occu- 


126  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  vin. 

First  pation  of  the  Hirpinian  territory  cut  off  the 

Bovianum, 

andthen  Sammtes  from  the  South  of  Italy,  where  the 

becomes'  Lucanians  and  Bruttians  remained  in  arms, 

federal  Except  for  some  trifling  operations,  which 

capital.  Pompeius  had  to  carry  out  in  order  to  com- 

plete the  pacification  of  his  district,  all  that  was 
now  left  for  the  commanders  of  88  was  to  crush  the  rebels 
in  these  two  isolated  divisions,  and  the  war  would  be  at  an 

end.  The  rebels  indeed  prepared  for  a  des- 
B.  c.  88.  .  r 

Desp.ra-  perate  resistance.     Five  generals  were  ap- 

thtTcon-  pointed,  Pompaedius    Silo,  the    Marsian,  at 

federates.  their  head  .    and>  by  enrolling  slaves   and 

calling  out  fresh  levies,  the  Samnites  mustered  an  army 
of  50,000  men.  Once  more,  almost  single-handed,  they 
prepared  to  strive  with  their  old  enemy  for  the  sover- 
eignty of  Italy.  The  gallant  Silo  signalized  his  appoint- 
ment by  recovering  Bovianum,  but  he  was  soon  after- 
wards slain.  He  is  said  to  have  been  defeated  in  a  great 
battle  by  Mamercus  yEmilius,  and  to  have  fallen  in  it. 
Appian  says  that  Metellus  defeated  him  in  lapygia  ;  Oro- 
sius,  that  Sulpicius  defeated  him  in  Apulia.  However 
that  may  be,  with  him  the  last  gleam  of  hope  for  the 
Samnite  cause  faded  away.  They  made,  it  is  said,  a 
treaty  with  Mithridates  ;  but  long  before  that  king  could 
have  reached  Italy,  if  he  had  been  able  to  make  the 
attempt,  there  would  have  been  no  allies  to  support  him. 
In  Lucania  Aulus  Gabinius,  made  rash  by  some  success- 
es, assaulted  the  confederate  camp,  but  was  repulsed 
and  slain.  Lamponius,  the  Lucanian  general,  remained 
master  of  the  country,  and  attempted  to  take  Rhegium, 
with  the  view  of  crossing  over  to  Sicily  and  renewing  the 
rebellion  there.  But  the  attempt  failed.  Nola,  however, 
Revolution  still  held  out  in  Campania;  and  now  there 
*nd  the6'  occurred  a  revolution  at  Rome  which  post- 


CH.  viii  The  Social  War.  127 


poned  the  final  subjugation  of  the  insurgents 
till  after  the  battle  of  the  Colline  Gate.  For  surgents 
convenience  and  clearness  the  pan  taken  by 
them  in  this  revolution  may  be  here  summarized.  Sulla, 
as  consul,  was  besieging  Nola  when  he  was  recalled  to 
Rome  by  the  Sulpician  revolution  and  his  election  to 
the  command  against  Mithridates.  A  Samnite  army 
had  come  to  relieve  it,  but  had  been  defeated  by  Sulla. 
Three  Roman  corps  still  remained  to  keep  the  Samnites 
in  check  and  besiege  Nola,  under  Claudius,  Metellus, 
and  Plotius.  It  was  to  Nola  that  Cinna  came,  and  se- 
duced a  large  portion  of  the  besiegers  to  follow  him  to 
Rome.  Upon  this  the  insurgents  suddenly  found 
themselves,  instead  of  hunted  desperadoes,  courted  as 
allies  by  two  parties.  The  Senate  again  offered  the 
terms  of  the  Lex  Plautia  Papiria  to  all  in  arms,  and 
some  accepted  them.  But  the  Nolans,  when  Metellus 
was  recalled  and  the  long  siege  was  then  raised  in  87 
B.C.,  marched  out  and  burnt  Abella.  The  Samnites 
demanded,  as  the  price  of  their  assistance,  that  the 
prisoners,  spoils,  and  deserters  should  be  restored,  and 
that  they  and  the  Romans  who  had  joined  them  should 
receive  the  franchise.  The  Senate  refused,  and  the 
Samnites  at  once  joined  Cinna  and  Marius,  who  were 
pledged  not  only  to  give  the  franchise,  but  also  to  enrol 
all  the  new  voters  in  the  old  tribes  ;  a  measure  which 
was  ratified  by  the  Senate  in  the  year  of  Cinna's  last 
consulship,  84  B.  c.  On  Sulla's  return  to  Italy  they  with 
the  Lucanians,  who  had  meanwhile  been  practically 
independent,  were  the  most  eager  supporters  of  Marius's 
son.  In  82  Pontius  of  Telesia,  at  the  head 
of  a  Samnite  force,  with  the  desperate  Telesia  °* 
hardihood  inspired  by  centuries  of  hatred, 
marched  straight  on  Rome,  and  the  city  was  saved  only 


128  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  ix. 

by  Sulla's  victory  at  the  Colline  Gate.  Three  days  after 
the  battle  Sulla  massacred  all  his  prisoners.  He  knew 
that  death  alone  could  disarm  such  implacable  foes. 
The  Samnite  name,  he  said,  with  his  cold  ferocity,  must 
be  erased  from  the  earth,  or  Rome  could  never  rest. 
The  Samnites  evacuated  Nola  in  the  year  80  B.  c.,  and 
then  their  last  great  leader,  C.  Papius  Mutilus,  having 
fled  in  disguise  to  his  wife  at  Teanum,  was  disowned  by 
her  and  slew  himself.  Sulla  carried  his  threats  into 
effect.  He  captured  ^Esernia,  and  spread  a  desolation 
all  around,  from  which  the  country  has 
Fate  of  never  recovered  to  this  day.  Then,  and 

bammum.  J 

not  till  then,  the  stubborn  resistance  of  the 
most  relentless  foe  of  Rome  was  finally  suppressed. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SULPICIUS. 

THE  terrible  disintegration  which  the  Social  War  had 
brought  on  Italy  was  faithfully  reproduced  in  Rome. 
There,  too,  every  man's  hand  was  against  his  neighbour. 
Creditor,  and  debtor,  tribune  and  consul,  Senate  and 
anti-Senate,  fiercely  confronted  each  other.  Personal 
interests  had  become  so  much  more  prominent,  and 
old  party-divisions  were  so  confused  by  the 
picianre-  schemes  of  Italianizing  politicians,  aristo- 

dSficStto  cratic  in  their  connections,  but  cleaving  to 
understand.  part  at  ieast-of  tne  traditional  democratic 
programme,  that  it  is  very  hard  to  see  where  the  views 
of  one  faction  blended  with  those  of  another  and  where 
they  clashed.  Still  harder  is  it  to  dissect  the  character  of 


CH.  ix.  Sulpicius.  129 

individuals  ;  to  decide,  for  instance,  how  far  a  man  like 
Sulpicius  was  swayed  by  disinterested  principles,  and 
how  far  he  fought  for  his  own  land.  We  need  not  make 
too  much  of  the  fact  that  he  appealed  to  force,  because 
violence  was  the  order  of  the  day,  and  submission  to  the 
law  simply  meant  submission  to  the  law  of  force.  But 
there  are  some  parts  of  his  career  apparently  so  incon- 
sistent as  almost  to  defy  explanation  which  in  any  case 
can  be  little  more  than  guesswork. 

Publius  Sulpicius  Rufus  was  now  in  the  prime  of  life, 
having  been  born  in  124  B.  c.  He  was  an  aristocrat,  an 
orator  of  great  force  and  fire,  and  a  friend 
of  Drusus,  whose  views  he  shared  and  in- 
herited. Cicero  speaks  of  him  in  no  grudging  terms. 
"  Of  all  the  speakers  I  have  heard  Sulpicius  was  the 
grandest,  and,  so  to  speak,  most  tragic.  Besides  being 
powerful,  his  voice  was  sweet  and  resonant.  His  ges- 
tures and  movements,  elegant  though  they  were,  had 
nothing  theatrical  about  them,  and  his  oratory,  though 
quick  and  fluent,  was  neither  redundant  nor  verbose." 
The  year  before  his  tribunate  had  been  a  turbulent  one 
at  Rome.  The  Social  War  and  Asiatic  disturbances  had 
brought  about  a  financial  crisis.  Debtors, 

.     .  .      .  ,.  .          .       ,  Financial 

hard   pressed   by   their   creditors,  invoked  crisis  at 

obsolete  penalties  against  usury  in  their 
defence,  and  the  creditors,  because  the  praetor  Asellio 
attempted  to  submit  the  question  to  trial,  murdered  him 
in  the  open  Forum.  The  debtors  responded  by  a  cry 
for  tabula?  novce,  or  a  sweeping  remission  of  all  debts. 
Of  these  debtors  many  doubtless  would  belong  to  the 
lower  orders  ;  but,  from  a  proposal  of  Sulpicius  made  the 
next  year,  it  appears  probable  that  some  were  found  in 
the  ranks  of  the  Senate.  War  had  made  money  "  tight," 
to  use  the  phraseology  of  our  modern  Stock  Exchange, 

K 


130  Th*  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  ix. 

and  reckless  extravagance  could  no  longer  be  supported 
by  borrowing. 

Sulpicius    inherited    the    policy    of    Drusus,    which 

was  to   reconstruct  the    Senatorial  Government   on  an 

Italian  basis.     Like  Drusus  he  had  to  con- 

fh^succes-         ciliate  prejudices  in  order  to  carry  out  his 

*Prof  design.     Plutarch  says  that  he  went  about 

Drusus.  * 

with  600  men  of  the  equestrian  order,  whom 
he  called  his  anti-Senate.  No  doubt  it  was  to  please 
these  equites,  who  would  belong  to  the  party  of  creditors, 
that  he  proposed  that  no  one  should  be  a  senator  who 
owed  more  than  2,000  denarii.  No  doubt,  too,  he  would 
have  filled  the  vacancies  thus  created  by  the  expulsion 
of  reckless  anti-Italian  optimates,  from  the  ranks  of  these 

equites,  just  as  Drusus  had  done.  Just  like 
tempts  to  Drusus,  too,  he  had  to  court  the  proletariate, 

remodel  the  an(j  fa\s  he  ^id  ^y  proposing  to  enrol  freed- 

governmeut.  /.  Jr      r 

men  in  the  tribes.  This,  as  they  were  gen- 
erally dependent  on  men  of  his  own  order,  he  could  do 
without  prejudice  to  the  new-modelled  aristocracy  which 
he  was  attempting  to  organize.  He  also  proposed  to 
grant  an  amnesty  to  those  who  had  been  exiled  by  the 
Lex  Varia,  hoping,  no  doubt,  to  gain  more  by  the  adhe- 
rents who  would  return  to  Rome  than  he  would  lose  by 
the  return  of  men  like  Varius  himself.  He  had  opposed 
such  an  amnesty  before;  but  on  such  a  point  he  might 
have  easily  changed  his  views,  especially  if  a  strong  cry 
was  being  raised  by  the  friends  of  the  exiles.  He  had  a 
personal  feud  with  the  Julian  family,  because  he  had 
opposed  Caesar's  illegal  candidature  for  the  consulship  ; 
but,  having  fortified  himself  by  such  alliances,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  carry  out  the  main  design  of  Drusus,  namely, 
the  complete  enfranchisement  of  the  Italians.  This,  per- 
haps, would  be  especially  distasteful  to  the  Julii,  as  su- 


CH.  ix.  Sulpicius.  131 

perseding  the  Lex  Julia  and  the  Lex  Plautia  Papiria, 
which  to  them,  no  doubt,  seemed  ample  and  more  than 
ample  concessions.  Sulpicius,  on  the  other  hand,  and 
the  minority  of  the  Senate  which  sided  with  him,  saw 
that  under  the  cover  of  clemency  a  grievous  wrong  was 
being  done.  For  not  only  were  the  Italians  who  had 
submitted  since  the  terms  of  the  Lex  Plau- 

Pro-Itahan 

tia  took  effect  without  the  franchise,  but  measu  eof 
from  the  fact  of  their  rebellion  they  had  lost 
their  old  privileges  as  allied  States.  Even  those  who 
had  benefited  by  these  concessions  had  benefited  only 
in  name.  As  they  voted  in  new  tribes,  their  votes  were 
valueless,  and  often  would  not  be  recorded  at  all ;  for  a 
majority  on  most  questions  would  be  assured  long  be- 
fore it  came  to  their  turn  to  vote.  To  a  statesman 
imbued  with  the  views  of  Drusus  such  a  distribution  of 
the  franchise  must  have  seemed  impolitic  trickery  ; 
and,  like  Drusus,  Sulpicius  resorted  to  questionable 
means  in  order  to  gain  the  end  on  which  he  had  set 
his  heart. 

Rome  was  thus  broken  up  into  two  camps,  not  as  of 
yore  broadly  marked  off  by  palpable  distinctions  of  rank, 
property,  or  privilege,  but  each  containing  adherents  of 
all  sorts  and  conditions,  though  in  the  Senate  the  oppo- 
nents of  Sulpicius  had  the  majority.  When  Sulpicius 
proposed  to  enrol  the  Italians  in  the  old  tribes,  the 
consuls  proclaimed  a  justitium,  or  suspension  of  all 
public  business  for  some  religious  observances.  It  is 
said  by  some  modern  writers  that  the  object  of  Sulpicius 
in  proposing  to  enrol  the  Italians  in  the  old  tribes  was  to 
secure  the  election  of  Marius  to  the  command  against 
Mithridates.  It  is  certain,  indeed,  that  Marius  longed  for 
it.  Daily  he  was  to  be  seen  in  the  Campus  Martins 
exercising  with  the  young  men,  and,  though  old  and 


132  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  ix. 

fat,  showing  himself  nimble  in  arms  and 
Attitude  of  active  on  horseback — conduct  which  excited 

JVlanus. 

some  men's  good-humoured  sympathy,  but 
shocked  others,  who  thought  he  had  much  better  go  to 
Baiae  for  the  baths  there,  and  that  such  an  exhibition 
was  contemptible  in  one  of  his  years.  Sulpicius  may- 
have  thought  Marius  quite  fit  for  the  command,  and  was 
warranted  in  thinking  so  by  the  events  of  the  Social 
War ;  but  there  is  no  more  ground  for  supposing  that 
the  election  of  Marius  was  his  primary  object  than  for 
considering  Plutarch's  diatribe  a  fair  estimate  of  his  cha- 
racter. He  was  the  friend  and  successor  of 

Connection 

of  Marius  Drusus,  and  his  alliance  with  Marius  was  a 

and  Sulpi-  .  .        .... 

cius  ex-  means  to  the  end  which  in  common  with 

plained.  Drusus  he  had  in  view,  and  not  the  end 

itself.  This  consideration  is  essential  to  a  true  under- 
standing of  the  politics  of  the  time,  and  just  makes  the 
difference  whether  Sulpicius  was  a  petty-minded  adven- 
turer or  deliberately  following  in  the  lines  laid  down  for 
him  by  a  succession  of  statesmen.  To  the  manoeuvre 
of  the  consul  he  replied  by  a  violent  protest  that  it  was 

illegal.  Rome  was  being  paraded  by  his 
fnSn  partisans — 3,000  armed  men,  and  there  was 

a  tumult  in  which  the  lives  of  the  consuls 
were  in  danger.  One,  Pompeius  Rufus,  escaped,  but  his 
son  was  killed.  The  other,  Sulla,  annulled  the  justiti- 
um,  but  is  said  to  have  got  off  with  his  life  only  because 
Marius  generously  gave  him  shelter  in  his  own  house. 
In  these  occurrences  it  is  impossible  not  to  see  that  the 
consuls  were  the  first  to  act  unfairly.  Sulpicius  had 
been  intending  to  bring  forward  his  laws  in  the  regular 
fashion.  They  thwarted  him  by  a  trick.  Whether  he 
in  anger  gave  the  signal  for  violence,  or  whether,  as  is 
quite  as  likely,  his  Italian  partisans  did  not  wait  for  his 


CH.  ix.  Sulpicius.  133 

bidding,  the  blame  of  the  tumult  lay  at  the  door  of  the 
other  side.  In  such  cases  he  is  not  guiltiest  who  strikes 
the  first  blow,  but  he  who  has  made  blows  inevitable. 

The  laws  of  Sulpicius  w^ere  carried.     Sulla  fled  to  the 
army ;   and,  perhaps,*  it  was  only  now  that  Sulpicius, 
knowing  or  thinking  that  he  knew  that  Sulla 
would  march  on  Rome,   carried   a   resolu-      gjlpldwi 
tion  in  the  popular   assembly  for   making      laws  carried 

by  force. 

Marius  commander  in  the  east.     Two  tri- 
bunes were  accordingly  sent  to  the  camp  at  Nola  to  take 
the  army  from  Sulla.     His  soldiers    immediately   slew 
them  ;    and,  burning  for  the  booty  of  Asia      gujla  fl.es 
and  attached  to  their  fortunate  leader,  they,       to  the  army, 
when  without  venturing  to  hint  at  the  means      marches  on 
by  which  he  could  avenge  it,  he  complained 
of  the  wrong  done  to  him,  clamorously  called  on  him  to 
lead  them  to  Rome.     All  his  officers,  except  one  quaes- 
tor, left  him  ;    but  he  set  out  with  six  legions  and  was 
joined  by  Pompeius  on  the  way.     Two  pnetors  met  him 
and  forbade  his  advance.    They  escaped  with  their  lives, 
but  the  soldiers  broke  their  fasces  and  tore  off  their  sena- 
torial robes.     A  second  and  a  third  time  the  Senate  sent 
to   ask   his   intentions.     "  To  release    Rome    from   her 
tyrants,"  was  the  grim  reply.     Then  he  vouchsafed  an 
offer  that  the  Senate,  Marius,  and  Sulpicius  should  meet 
him  in  the  Campus  Martius  to  come  to  terms.     If  this 
meant  that  he  would  come  with  his  army  at  his  back,  it 
was  an  absurd  proposal.    If  it  meant  that  he  would  come 
alone,  it  was  a  falsehood.    In  either  case  it  was  a  device 
to  fritter  away  time.     For  all  the  while  that  he  was  ban- 
dying meaningless  messages  he  continued 
his  onward  march.     He  had  sacrificed,  and         Sulla's 

astuteness 

the  soothsayer  Postumius,  when  he  saw  the  and  super- 
entrails,  had  stretched  out  his  hands  to  him, 


134  The  Gracchi,  Mar ius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  ix. 

and  offered  to  be  kept  in  chains  for  punishment  after 
the  battle  if  it  was  not  a  victory.  He,  too,  had  himself 
seen  a  vision  of  good  omen.  Bellona,  or  another  god- 
dess, had,  he  dreamed,  put  a  thunderbolt  in  his  hands, 
and,  naming  his  enemies  one  by  one,  bidden  him 
strike  them,  and  they  were  consumed  to  ashes. 

Again  envoys  came  from  the  Senate  forbidding  him 
to  come  within  five  miles  of  Rome.  Perhaps  they  still 
felt  as  secure  in  the  immemorial  freedom  of  the  city 
from  military  rule  as  the  English  Parliament  did  before 
Cromwell's  coup  d'etat.  Again  he  amused  them,  and 
no  doubt  himself  also,  with  a  falsehood,  and,  professing 
compliance,  followed  close  upon  their  heels.  With  one 
legion  he  occupied  the  Caslian  Gate,  with  another  under 
Pompeius  the  Colline  Gate,  with  a  third  the  Pons  Subli- 
cius,  while  a  fourth  was  posted  outside  as  a  reserve. 
Thus,  for  the  first  time,  a  consul  commanded  an  army  in 
the  city,  and  soldiers  were  masters  of  Rome.  Marius 
and  Sulpicius  met  them  on  the  Esquiline,  and,  pouring 

down  tiles  from  the  housetops,  at  first  beat 
fighting  them  back.  But  Sulla,  waving  a  burning 

torch,  bade  his  men  shoot  fiery  arrows  at 
the  houses,  and  drove  the  Marians  from  the  Esquiline 
Forum.  Then  he  sent  for  the  legion  in  reserve,  and 
ordered  a  detachment  to  go  round  by  the  Subura  and 
take  the  enemy  in  the  rear.  In  vain  Marius  made  an- 
other stand  at  the  temple  of  Tellus.  In  vain  he  offered 
liberty  to  any  slaves  that  would  join  him.  He  was 
beaten  and  fled  from  the  city.  Thus  Sulla,  having  by 
injustice  provoked  disorder,  quelled  it  by  the  sword,  and 
began  the  civil  war.  Sulpicius,  Marius,  and  ten  others 
were  proscribed,  and  Sulla  is  said  to  have  still  further 

stimulated  the  pursuit  of  Marius  by  setting 
slain.  a  price  on  his  head.  Sulpicius  was  killed 


CH.  ix.  Sulpicius.  135 

at  Laurentum,  and,  according  to  Velleius  Paterculus, 
Sulla  fixed  up  the  eloquent  orator's  head  at  the  Ros- 
tra, a  thing  not  unlikely  to  have  been  done  by  a  man 
to  whose  nature  such  grim  irony  was  thoroughly 
congenial.  He  evinced  it  on  this  occasion  in  another 
way,  which  may  have  suggested  to  Victor 
Hugo  his  episode  of  Lantenac  and  the  gunner.  l^IT8  oi 
He  gave  the  slave  who  betrayed  Sulpicius 
his  freedom,  and  then  had  him  hurled  from  the  Tarpeian 
Rock.  After  this  he  set  to  work  to  restore  such  order  as 
would  enable  him  to  hasten  to  the  east. 

Various  explanations  have  been  offered  to  account  for 
his  moderation  at  this  conjuncture,  and  for  his  leaving 
Italy  precisely  when  his  enemies  were  again 
gathering  for  an  attack.     But  the  true  one        ShJtaJulla 
has    never   yet,    perhaps,    been    suggested.  ^ 

Who  was  it  that  had  made  him  supreme  at  Rome  ?  The 
army.  What  had  been  the  bribe  which  had  won  it 
over  ?  A  campaign  in  Asia  under  the  fortunate  Sulla. 
Without  that  army  he  was  powerless,  nay,  he  was  a 
dead  man.  Therefore  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to 
execute  his  pledge  to  the  army,  which  would  have  no 
keen  desire  to  encounter  its  countrymen  in  Italy.  No 
doubt  he  coveted  the  glory  and  spoil  of  the  Asiatic  com- 
mand; but  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  he  would  have 
quitted  Italy  now  of  his  own  free  will.  He  had  no 
choice  in  the  matter.  He  was  bound  hand  and  foot  by 
his  promises  to  the  soldiers ;  and  all  that  he  could  do 
was  by  plausible  moderation  to  win  as  many  friends, 
conciliate  as  many  foes,  as  possible,  throw  on  Cinna, 
whom  he  could  not  hope  to  keep  quiet,  the  guilt  of  per- 
jury, and  trust  to  fortune  for  the  rest.  This  is  a  probable 
and  consistent  view  of  what  now  to.o.H  place  at  Rome ; 
and  every  other  account  wakes,  out  Sulla  \o.  have  been 


measures 


136  The  Gracchi,  Marms,  and  Sulla.       CH.  ix. 

either  inconsistent,  which  he  never  was,  for  he  was 
always  uniformly  selfish;  or  patriotic,  which  he  never 
was,  if  patriotism  consists  in  sacrificing  private  to  public 
considerations  ;  or  indifferent,  which  he  was  in  principle 
but  never  in  practice,  unless  where  his  own  interests 
were  not  threatened  and  only  the  suffering  of  others  in- 
volved. 

His  first  measure  was  to  annul  the  Sulpician  laws. 
Secondly,  to  relieve  the  debtors,  some  colonies  were  es- 
tablished, and  a  law  was  passed  about  inter- 
est, the  terms  of  which  we  do  not  know. 
Thirdly,  the  Senate,  thinned  by  the  Social 
War  and  the  Varian  law,  was  recruited  by  300  optimates. 
Fourthly,  because  Sulpicius  had  resisted  the  proclama- 
tion of  a  justitium — that  device  by  which  the  Senate  had 
virtually,  though  not  legally,  retained  in  its  own  hands 
the  power  of  discussing  any  measure  before  it  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  people — therefore  for  the  future  no  measure 
was  to  be  submitted  to  the  people  till  it  had  been  previ- 
ously discussed  by  the  Senate.  In  other  words,  the  Sen- 
ate was  now  confirmed  by  law  in  a  privilege  which  it  had 
hitherto  only  exercised  by  the  employment  of  a  fiction. 
Fifthly,  the  votes  were  to  be  taken,  not  in  the  Comitia 
Tributa,  but  in  the  Comitia  of  Centuries.  Sixthly,  the 
five  classes  were  no  longer  to  have  an  equal  voice,  but 
the  first  class  was,  as  in  the  Servian  constitution,  to  have 
nearly  half  the  votes.  As  the  first  class  consisted  of 
those  who  had  an  estate  of  100,000  sesterces,  this  ordi- 
nance changed  the  democracy  into  a  timocracy,  trans- 
ferring the  power  from  the  people  generally  to  the  wealth- 
ier classes ;  but,  considering  how  voting  had  been 
manipulated  of  late,  it  was  perhaps  a  measure  due  to 
the  Senate  quite  as  much  as  to  Sulla.  On  the  whole  he 
legislated  as  little  as  he  could  and  proscribed  as  few  as/ 


CH.  x.  Marius  and  Cinna.  137 

he  could.     But  he  tried  to  get  two  of  his  partisans,  Ser- 
vius  and  Nonius,  elected  consuls  for  the  year  87.     In- 
stead of  them,  however,  L.  Cornelius  Cinna^x 
a  determined  leader  of  the  populares,  was        Opposition 

'  to  Sulla. 

elected  ;  and  though  Cnaeus  Octavius,  his 
colleague,  was  one  of  the  optimates,  he  was  not  Sulla's 
creature.  In  another  quarter  his  arrangements  were 
thwarted  even  more  unpleasantly.  He  had  got  a  decree 
framed  by  the  people,  giving  the  army  of  the  north  to 
his  friend  Q.  Pompeius  Rufus,  and  recalling  Cn.  Pompe- 
ius  Strabo.  But  the  latter  procured  the  assassination  of 
the  former,  and  remained  at  the  head  of  the  army.  Still 
Sulla  showed  no  resentment.  A  tribune  named  Virginius 
was  threatening  to  prosecute  him.  But  he  contented 
himself  with  making  Cinna  ascend  the  Capitol  with  a 
stone  m  his  hand,  and,  throwing  it  down  before  a  num- 
ber of  spectators,  solemnly  swear  to  observe  the  new 
constitution.  Then,  leaving  Metellus  in  Samnium  and 
Appius  Claudius  at  Nola,  he  hurried  to  Capua,  and  em- 
barking at  Brundusium  felt,  no  doubt,  that  if  he  must 
pay  his  debt  to  the  army  before  the  army  would  commit 
fresh  treasons  for  him,  it  was  not  unpleasant  now  to  be 
forced  away  ftom  the  wasps'  nest  which  he  had  stirred 
up  round  him  at  home.  And  so,  making  a  virtue  of  a 
necessity,  he  sailed  with  a  light  heart  from  the  chance  of 
assassination  at  Rome  to  fame  and  fortune  in  the  East. 


CHAPTER  X. 


MARIUS  AND   CINNA. 


MEANWHILE  what  had  become  of  Marius  ?  Already  a 
halo  of  legend  was  gathering  round  his  name,  and  all  Ita- 


138          The  Gracchi,  Marius  >  and  Sulla.  CH.  x. 

ly  was  ringing  with  his  adventures.  When  he 

AiL*uL,°f  kad  ^ec^  from  R°me  (not  sorry  now,  we  may 

be  sure,  that  he  had  gone  through  his  late  ex- 
hibitions in  the  Campus  Martiusj,  he  had  sent  his  son  to 
some  of  his  father-in-law's  farms  to  get  necessary  provi- 
sions. Young  Marius  was  overtaken  by  daylight,  before  he 
could  get  to  his  father-in-law's  farm,  and  pack  the  things 
up,  and  was  nearly  caught  by  those  on  his  track.  But 
the  farm -bailiff  saw  them  in  time,  and,  hiding  him  in  a  cart 
full  of  beans,  yoked  the  team,  and  drove  him  to  Rome. 
There  young  Marius  went  to  his  wife's  house,  and,  getting 
what  he  wanted,  set  out  at  nightfall  for  Ostia, 
and  finding  a  ship  starting  for  Africa,  went 
aboard.  His  father  had  not  waited  for  his  return.  He 
too  had  embarked  at  Ostia  for  Africa  with  his  son-in- 
law.  But  now  in  his  old  age  the  sea  was  not  so  kind  to 
him  as  when,  in  his  bold  and  confident  youth,  he  had 
sailed  to  sue  for  his  first  consulship  from  the  very  land 
.  to  which  he  was  now  flying.  A  storm  came  on,  and  the 
ship  was  blown  southwards  along  the  coast.  Marius 
begged  the  captain  to  keep  clear  of  Tarracina,  because 
Geminius,  a  leading  man  there,  was  his  bitter  foe.  But 
the  storm  increased;  Marius  was  sea-sick,  and  they  were 
forced  to  go  ashore  at  Circeii  (Monte  Cir- 
cello).  Some  herdsmen  told  them  that 
horsemen  had  just  been  there  in  pursuit ;  so  they  spent 
the  night  in  a  thick  wood,  hungry,  and  tortured  by 
anxiety.  Next  day  they  went  to  the  coast  again,  and 
Marius  implored  the  men  to  stand  by  him,  telling  them 
that  when  he  was  a  child  an  eagle's  nest  fell  into  his 
lap,  with  seven  young  ones  in  it,  and  the  soothsayers 
had  said  that  it  meant  that  he  should  attain  the  highest 
honours  seven  times.  About  two  miles  and  a  half 
Minturme.  from  Minturnse  they  spied  some  horsemen 


88  B.  c.  Marius  ami  Cinna.  1 39 

making  towards  them  ;  and,  plunging  into  the  sea, 
they  swam  towards  some  merchantmen  near  the 
shore.  Two  slaves  swam  with  Marius,  keeping  him  up, 
and  he  got  into  one  ship,  and  his  bon-in-law  into  the 
other,  while  the  horsemen  shouted  to  the  crew  to  put 
ashore,  or  throw  Marius  overboard.  The  captains  con- 
sulted together,  and  a  terrible  moment  it  must  have  been 
for  the  fugitives.  But  the  spell  of  the  Cimbric  victories 
was  potent  still,  and  the  captains  replied  that  they  would 
not  give  up  Marius.  So  the  soldiers  rode  off  in  a  rage. 
But  the  sailors,  having  so  far  acted  generously,  were 
anxious  to  get  rid  of  their  dangerous  guest,  and,  landing 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Liris,  on  pretence  of  waiting  for  a 
fair  wind,  told  Marius  to  go  ashore  and  get  some  rest, 
and  while  he  was  lying  down,  sailed  away.  Half  stu- 
p:fied,  he  scrambled  through  bogs,  and  dykes,  and 
mud  till  he  came  to  an  old  man's  cottage,  and  begged 
the  owner  to  shelter  a  man  who,  if  he  escaped,  would 
reward  him  beyond  his  hopes.  The  man  told  him 
that  he  could  hide  him  in  a  safer  place  than  his  cottage ; 
and,  showing  him  a  hole  by  the  river-side,  covered 
him  up  in  it  with  some  rushes.  But  he  was  soon  rudely 
disturbed.  Geminius  was  on  his  trail,  and  Marius  heard 
some  of  his  emissaries  loudly  threatening  the  old  man 
for  hiding  an  outlaw.  In  his  terror  Marius  stripped  and 
plunged  into  the  river,  and  so  betrayed  himself  to  the 
pursuers,  who  hauled  him  out  naked  and  covered  with 
mud,  and  gave  him  up  to  the  magistrates  of  Minturnae. 
By  these  he  was  placed  under  a  strong  guard  in  the 
house  of  a  woman  named  Fannia.  She,  like  Geminius, 
had  a  personal  grudge  against  him,  for  in  his  sixth  con- 
sulship he  had  fined  her  four  drachmas  for  ill-conduct. 
But  now  when  she  saw  his  misery  she  forgot  her  resent- 
ment, and  did  her  best  to  cheer  him.  Nor  was  this 


140  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.         CH.  x. 

difficult,  for  the  stout  heart  of  Marius  had  never  failed 
him.  He  told  Fannia  that,  as  he  was  coming  to  her 
house,  an  ass  had  come  out  to  drink  at  a  neighbouring 
fountain,  and,  fixing  its  eyes  steadily  on  him,  had  brayed 
aloud  and  frisked  vivaciously,  whence  he  augured  that 
he  would  find  safety  by  sea.  The  magistrates,  how- 
ever, had  resolved  to  kill  him,  and  sent  a  Cimbrian 
to  do  the  deed,  for  no  citizen  would  do  it.  The  man 
went  armed  with  a  sword  into  the  gloomy  room  where 
Marius  lay.  But  soon  he  ran  out  crying,  "  I  cannot  slay 
Marius.''  He  had  seen  eyes  glaring  in  the  darkness,  and 
had  heard  a  terrible  voice  say,  "  Barest  thou  slay  Caius 
Marius?"  His  heart  had  failed  him;  he  had  thrown 
down  the  sword  and  fled.  Either  the  magistrates  now 
changed  their  minds,  or  the  people  forced  them  to  let 
Marius  go,  or  perhaps  Fannia  connived  at  his  escape. 
Plutarch  says  that  the  people  escorted  him  to  the  coast, 
and,  when  they  came  to  a  sacred  grove,  called  the  Mari- 
cian  Grove,  which  no  man  might  enter,  but  which  it 
would  take  a  long  time  to  go  round,  an  old  man  had  led 
the  way  into  it,  saying  that  no  place  was  so  sacred  but  that 
it  might  be  entered  to  save  Marius.  In  some  way  he 
reiched  the  coast  where  a  friend  had  secured 
a  vessel,  and  being  driven  by  the  wind  to 
^Enaria  (Ischia),  he  there  found  his  son-in-law  and  sailed 
for  Africa. 

Want  of  water  forced  them  to  put  in  at  Eryx  on  the 

N.  W.  of  Sicily ;  but  the  Roman  quaestor  there  was  on 

the  look-out,  and  killing  sixteen  of  the  crew 

nearly  took   Marius.     Landing  at  Meninx 

(Jerbah),  the  fugitive  heard  that  his  son  was  in  Africa 

too,  and  had  gone  to  Hiempsal,  King  of  Numidia,  to  ask 

Cartha  e  ^or  a^'  uPon  which  he  set  sail  again  and 

landed  at  Carthage.     The  Roman  governor 


88  B.  c.  Marius  and  Cinna,  141 

there  sent  to  warn  him  off  from  Africa.  Marius  was 
dumb  with  indignation,  but  on  being  asked  what  answer 
he  had  to  send,  replied,  so  ran  the  story,  "  Go  and  say 
you  have  seen  Caius  Marius  sitting  on  the  ruins  of 
Carthage." 

Hiempsal  meanwhile  had  been  keeping  young  Marius 
in  a  sort  of  honourable  captivity.     But,  according  to  a 
story  similar  to  that  told  of  Thomas  a  Becket's  father, 
a  damsel  of  the  country  had  fallen   in   love  with  his 
handsome  face,  and  helped  him  to  escape. 
Father  and  son  now  retired  to  Circina  (Ker- 
kennah),  where  news  soon  reached  him  which  brought 
him  back  to  Italy. 

Hardly  had  Sulla  left  Brundusium  when  the  truce 
which  he  had  patched  up  was  broken.  Cinna  being 
bribed,  as  was  said  probably  without  foun- 

Counter 

dation,  with  300  talents,  had  demanded  that         revolutions 
the   Italians  lately  enfranchised  should  be         at  Rome' 
enrolled  in  the  old  tribes.     We  do  not  know  very  much 
about  Cinna,  but  we  do  seem  to  gather  that  he  was  bold, 
resolute,   not   ungenerous   or   bloodthirsty ; 
and  it  cannot  be  too  strongly  insisted  on 
that,  like  Saturninus,  and  Sulpicius,  and  Drusus,  he  was 
only  demanding  justice.     Octavius  opposed  him,  and, 
hearing  that  Cinna's  partisans  were  threatening  the  tri- 
bunes in  the  Forum,  he  charged  down  the 

Street- 

Via  Sacra  with  a  band  of  followers,  and  dis-        fighting. 
persed  them,  and  a  great  number  of  Cinna's        driven  from 
followers   were   slain.      On   this  Cinna  left        Romc' 
Rome,  and,  joined  by  Sertorius,  whom  we  shall  hear  of 
again,  went  round  the  towns  mustering  his  friends.    The 
Senate  declared  his  consulship  to  be  void,  and  elected 
L.  Cornelius  Merula  in  his  place.     Cinna, 
with  characteristic  audacity,  instantly  has-        espoused 


142  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     87  B.  c. 

by  the  tened  to  the  army  in  Campania ;  and,  rend- 

armypam  ing  his  clothes  and  throwing  himself  on  the 

ground,  so  worked  on  the  pity  of  the  soldiers 
that  they  lifted  him  up,  and  told  him  he  was  consul  still,  and 
might  lead  them  where  he  pleased.     Then, 
lands'in  visiting  the  Italian  towns,  he  obtained  many 

Etruria.  recruits ;     and,    hearing   that    Marius    had 

landed  in  Etruria  (perhaps  on  his  invitation),  he  agreed 
to  act  in  concert  with  him,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
Sertorius. 

Meanwhile  Octavius  and  Merula  had  fortified  the  city, 
had  sent  for  troops  from  Cisalpine  Gaul,  and  had  sum- 
moned the  proconsul  Pompeius  from  Pice- 

The  Senate  r   .  r 

summons  num.     rompeius  came   and    halted  at  the 

Pompems  Colline  Gate.  It  was  suspected  that  he  was 
Picenum.  waiting  to  join  the  successful  side.  With 
him  was  his  son,  afterwards  called  "  the  Great/'  who 
now  showed  of  what  stuff  he  was  made  by  putting  down 
a  mutiny  against  his  father  and  baffling  a  plot  for  his 
Marius  own  assassination.  Marius,  with  a  band  of 

Sndkhe°StiA'  Moors»  and  tne  slaves  whom  he  had  col- 
Serroriiis.  lected  from  the  Etrurian  field-gangs,  was 
hem  Rome  admitted  by  treachery  into  Ostia  and  sacked 
in-  the  town.  Cinna  marched  to  the  right  bank 

of  the  Tiber,  opposite  the  Janiculum.  Sertorius  held  the 
river  above  the  city,  and  a  corps  was  sent  to  Ariminum 
to  prevent  any  help  coming  from  North  Italy.  At  this 
The  Senate  crisis  the  Senate  sent  for  Metellus  and  tried 
M™eUusS  to  obtain  the  aid  °f the  Samnites,  who,  as  we 
and  courts  have  seen,  joined  Marius  and  Cinna.  The 

the    alliance  ,  -  .,  ,       ..    , 

of  the  treachery  of  a  tribune  in  command  of  the 

Janiculum  gave  the  Marians  admission  to 

the  city.     But  they  were  driven  out  again,  and  might 

even  have  fteen  dislodged  from  the  Janiculum  had  not 


CH.  x.  Mccrius  and  Cinna.  143 

Pompeius  persuaded  Octavius  to  check  the  pursuit. 
Pompeius  was  playing  a  waiting  game,  ready  to  join  the 
strongest,  or  crush  both  parties,  as  he  saw  his  chance. 
And  now  within  the  city  starvation  set  in,  and  a  pesti- 
lence spread.  Marius  had  blocked  up  the  Tiber,  and 
occupied  the  outlying  towns  on  which  the  communica- 
tions of  the  capital  depended.  Nor  could 
the  Senate  trust  its  cwn  troops.  Pompeius  £eath  ?f 

Pompeius. 

was  killed  by  a  thunder-bolt — not  less  sus- 
picious than  that  which  slew  Romulus — and  his  body 
had  been  torn  from  the  bier,  and  dragged  through  the 
streets  by  the  people.   The  soldiers  of  Octa- 
vius cheered  Cinna  when  he  marshalled  his       £isth?Cti°n 
troops  opposite  them  near  the  Alban  Mount.       Senate's 

1  troops. 

Moreover  the  leaders  themselves  were   at 
variance.     Octavius,  seeing  the  humour  of  his  men,  was 
afraid  to  fight,  but  would  concede  nothing.     Metellus 
wished  for  a  compromise.     Both  armies  were  now  out- 
side the  city,  the  pestilence  probably  having  driven  the 
Marians  to  withdraw.     But  Marius  had  command  of  the 
Via  Appia,  the  Tiber,  and  most  of  the  neighbourhood; 
and  the  famine  became  sorer  in  Rome.   The 
soldiers  wished  Metellus  to  take  the  com-         petence  of 
mand  from  Octavius,  and,  on  his  refusal,         anCdavi 
deserted  in  crowds  to  the  enemy.     So  also         Metellus. 
did  the  slaves,  to  whom    Octavius  would   not  promise 
freedom,  as  Cinna  gladly  did.     At  last  the  Senate  sent 
to  make  terms  with  Cinna ;  but  while  they 

.  The   Senate 

were  stickling  about  acknowledging  his  title      submits  to 
of  consul,  he  advanced  to  the  gates.     Then 
they   surrendered   at   discretion,   only  begging  him   to 
swear  to  shed  no  blood.     Cinna,  refusing  to  be  bound 
by  this  condition,  promised   that  he  would  not  volun- 
tarily do  so.     For  he  saw  by  his  side  the  grim  figure  of 


144  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      88  B.  C> 

the  man  to  whom  he  had  given  pro-consular  powers, 
who  had  already  taunted  him  with  weakness  for  con- 
ferring with  the  Senate  at  all,  and  in  whose  sullen,  un- 
shorn face  he  read  a  craving  for  vengeance  which  noth- 
ing but  blood  would  satisfy. 

When  Cinna   entered  the  city,   Marius,  with  savage 
irony,  said  that  an  outlaw  had  no  business  within  the 

walls,  and  he  would  not  come  in  till  the  sen- 
at  Rome?1"6  tence  had  been  formally  rescinded  by  a 

meeting  of  the  people  in  the  Forum.  But 
the  gates,  when  once  he  had  passed  them,  were  closed, 
and  for  five  days  and  five  nights  Rome  became  a  sham- 
bles. Appian  says  that  Marius  and  Cinna  had  both 
sworn  to  spare  the  life  of  Octavius.  But  Marius  was 
never  a  liar,  and  the  story  is  false  on  the  face  of  it ;  for 
just  before  this  Appian  relates  how,  when  Cinna  had 
promised  to  be  merciful,  Marius  would  make  no  sign. 

Octavius  is  said  to  have  seated  himself  in 
Deathof  ^is  official  chair,  dressed  in  his  official 

Octavius. 

robes,  on  the  Janiculum,  and  to  have  await- 
ed the  assassins  there.  His  head  was  fastened  up  in 
front  of  the  Rostra  in  emulation  of  the  ghastly  precedent 
set  by  Sulla.  He  was  an  obstinate,  dull  man ;  and  if 
this  burlesque  of  the  conduct  of  the  senators  when  the 

Gauls  took  Rome  was  really  enacted,  the 
vkthns  of  theatrical  display  must  have  been  cold  com- 
themas-  fort  for  those  of  his  party  on  whom  his 

sacre.  . 

incapacity  brought  ruin.  Among  the  latter 
were  the  brothers  Caesar,  Caius,  who  had  sought  to  be 

consul  before  he  was  praetor,  and  had  been 
Caesars  denounced  for  it  by  Sulpicius,  and  Lucius, 

the  conqueror  at  Acerrae  and  author  of 
the  Julian  law.  Publius  Crassus,  consul  in  97,  and  one 
of  Caesar's  lieutenants  in  the  Social  War,  fled  with  his 


CH.  x.  Marius  and  Cinna.  445 

son,  and  when   overtaken  first  stabbed  his  Publius 

son  and  then  himself.      Marcus  Antonius,  Cra.su*. 
the  great  forensic  orator,  was  so  odious  to 

Marius  that  the  latter,  on  hearing  that  he  Marcus 

Antomas. 

was  taken,  wished,  so  the  story  runs,  to  go 
and  kill  him  with  his  own  hand.  Antonius  was  in  hi- 
ding, and  was  betrayed  by  the  indiscretion  of  a  slave, 
who,  being  questioned  by  a  wine-seller  why  he  wa$  buy- 
ing more  or  better  wine  than  usual,  whispered  to  him 
that  it  was  for  Marcus  Antonius.  On  the  soldiers 
coming  to  kill  him,  he  pleaded  so  eloquently  for  nis  life 
that  they  wept  and  would  not  touch  him.  But  their  offi- 
cer, who  was  waiting  below,  impatiently  came  up  and  cut 
off  his  head  with  his  own  hand.  Lucius  Merula  opened 
his  veins,  and  so  bled  to  death.  His  crime  was  that  he 
had  been  made  consul  when  Cinna  was  deposed.  His 
last  act  seems  odd  to  us,  but  pathetically  bespoke  the 
man's  piety  and  recalls  the  last  scene  in  the  life  of  De- 
mosthenes. He  wrote  on  a  tablet  that  he  had  taken  off 
his  official  cap  when  opening  his  veins,  so  as  to  avoid 
the  sacrilege  of  a  flamen  of  Jupiter  dying  with  it  on  his 
head.  Marius  had  behaved  generously  once  to  Q  Lu- 
tatius  Catulus,  his  old  colleague  against  the  Cimbri ;  but 
Catulus  had  helped  to  drive  him  into  exile,  and  there 
was  to  be  no  second  mistake  of  that  sort.  "  He  must 
die,"  he  said,  when  the  relatives  of  Catulus 
pleaded  for  his  life.  It  is  not  unlikely  that 
disease,  and  drinking,  and  his  late  hardships  had  made 
the  old  man  insane.  He  had  been  occasionally  good- 
natured  in  former  days  ;  now  he  seemed  to  gloat  in  car- 
nage. For  every  sneer  cast  at  him,  for  every  wrong 
done  to  him  in  past  years,  he  took  a  horrible  revenge. 
When  Cinna  had  summoned  him,  he  had  said  that  he 
would  settle  the  question  of  enrolment  in  the  tribes  once 
L 


146  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.       86  B.  c. 

for  all.  He  wished  not  to  select  victims,  but  to  massacre 
all.  the  leading  optimates.  Sertorius  begged  Cinna  to 
check  the  slaughter.  Cinna  did  try  to  curb  the  out- 
rages of  the  slave  bands ;  but  he  dared  not  break  with 
Marius,  whom  he  named  as  joint  consul  with  himself  for 
the  year  86.  But  as  soon  as  his  colleague  was  dead,  he 
and  Sertorius  surrounded  the  ruffians  and  killed  them 
to  a  man. 

Marius  did  not  live  much  longer.     He  had  had  his 

revenge.     He  had  gained  his  seventh  consulship.     It  is 

said  that,  telling  his  friends  that  after  such 

Death  of  vicissitudes  it  would  be  wrong  to  tempt  fate 

Marms. 

further,  he  took  to  his  bed  and  after  seven 
days  died.  He  drank  hard,  was  seized  with  pleurisy,  and 
in  his  last  hours  became  delirious.  He  fancied  that  he 
was  in  Asia,  and  by  shouts  and  gestures  cheered  on  the 
army  of  his  dreams,  and  with  "  such  a  stern  and  iron- 
clashing  close"  died  January  13  or  17.  He  was  more 
than  seventy  years  old,  and  had  enjoyed  his  seventh 
consulship  for  either  thirteen  or  seventeen  days. 

Lucius  Valerius  Flaccus  succeeded  Marius  as  consul, 
and  passed  a  law  making  one-fourth  of  a  debt  legal  ten- 
der for  payment  of  it ;  and  probably  in  the  same  year 
the  denarius  was  restored  to  its  standard  value.  A  cen- 
sus was  also  held,  which  would  include  the  new  Italian 
citizens,  and  Philippus,  whose  opposition  to  Drusus  on 
this  very  question  had  helped  to  kindle  the  Social  War, 
was  censor.  Cinna,  as  he  was  pledged  to  do  so,  must 

have  carried  some  measure  for  enrolling 
of  itoiTa? fc  the  Italians  in  the  old  tribes ;  but  we  can 
b1' Cinna*  only  conjecture  what  was  actually  done. 

Sulpicius  had  already  carried  such  a  mea- 
sure, but  it  had  been  probably  revoked  by  Sulla  before 
he  left  Italy.  In  84,  just  before  his  return,  the  Senate, 


CH.  x.  Marius  and  Cinna.  1 17 

it  is  said,  gave  the  Italians  the  right  of  voting,  and  dis- 
tributed the  libertini,  or  freed  slaves,  among  the  thirty- 
five  tribes.  Perhaps  this  was  a  formal  ratification  of 
what  had  been  passed  before  under  Cinna's  coercion. 

Cinna  was  now  all-powerful  at  Rome  For  four  suc- 
cessive years,  87  to  84  B.  c.,  he  was  consul ;  and  with 
the  exception  of  Asia,  Macedonia,  Greece, 
and  Africa,  where  Metellus  had  escaped  ^J^macy 
and  was  in  arms,  the  whole  Roman  world 
was  at  his  feet.  But  he  did  not  know  how  to  use  his 
power.  He  may  have  removed  the  restrictions  on  grain, 
and  did  proclaim  Sulla  and  Metellus  outlaws ;  but, 
though  he  should  have  bent  every  energy  to  hinder  Sul- 
la's return,  he  did  worse  than  nothing,  and,  instead  of 
Sertorius,  sent  the  incapable  Flaccus  and  the  ruffian 
Fimbria  against  the  general  who  had  just  taken  Athens 
and  defeated  Archelaus.  The  miscarriage  of  their  en- 
terprise will  be  told  in  the  next  chapter.  When  Cinna 
suddenly  became  alive  to  the  fact  that  the  avenger  was 
at  hand,  and  that  either  he  must  act  promptly  or  Sulla 
would  be  in  Rome,  he  hastened  to  Ancona,  where  he 
sent  one  division  of  the  army  across  to  the  opposite 
coast.  But  the  second  division  was  driven  back  by  a 
storm  ;  and  the  soldiers  then  dispersed,  saying  that  they 
would  not  fight  against  their  own  countrymen.  On  this 
the  rest  of  the  army  refused  to  embark.  Cinna  went  to 
harangue  them,  and  one  of  his  lictors  in  clearing  a  way 
struck  a  soldier.  Another  soldier  struck  him.  Cinna  told 
his  lictors  to  seize  this  second  mutineer,  and 
in  the  tumult  that  arose  Cinna  was  slain.  ^nconl" 
Plutarch  says  that  the  troops  murdered  him 
because  he  was  suspected  of  having  killed  Pompeius, 
and  that,  when  he  tried  to  bribe  a  centurion  with  a 
signet-ring  to  spare  him,  the  centurion  replied  that 


148  'Ihe  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.        CH.  xi. 

Le  was  not  going  to  seal  a  bond  but  slay  a  tyrant.  But 
Cinna  probably  died  as  he  lived,  a  brave  man,  and  one 
who  could  not  have  held  ascendency  for  so  long,  and 
over  men  like  Sertorius,  had  he  not  been  an  able  as 
well  as  a  brave  man. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  FIRST   MITHRIDATIC  WAR. 

EVENTS  have  been  anticipated  in  order  to  relate  the 
close  of  Cinna's  career.  But  it  is  time  now  to  say  what 
Sulla  had  been  doing,  and  who  that  Mithridates  was 
whose  name  for  so  long  had  been  formidable  at  Rome. 

After  the  defeat  of  the  northern  hordes  and  the  sup- 
pression of  the  second  slave  revolt,  there  was  a  war  with 
the  Celtiberi  in  Spain,  in  97,  in  which  Sertori- 
events^fter        IIS   showed  himself  already   an  adroit   and 
g{1aeVgew°ard         Dold  officer.     He  was  in  winter  quarters  at 
Castulo  (Cazlona),  and  his  men  were  so  dis- 
orderly that  the  Spaniards  were  emboldened  to  attack 
them  in  the  town  ;  Sertorius  escaped,  rallied 

Sertorius  in          ,,  ...  111, 

command  those  soldiers  who  had  also  escaped,  marched 
C^hiberihe  back»  and  after  putting  those  in  the  town  to 
the  sword,  dressed  his  troops  in  the  dead  men's 
clothes,  and  so  obtained  admission  to  another  town  which 
had  helped  the  enemy.  But  the  hero  of  the  campaign  was 
Titus  Didius,  afterwards  Caesar's  lieutenant  in  the  Social 
War.  He  had  some  hard  fighting  and  captured  Terme- 
sus,  the  chief  town  of  the  Arevaci,  and  Colenda.  He 
earned  his  triumph  by  other  means  also.  There  was  3 
town  near  Colenda,  the  inhabitants  of  which  the  Ro- 


CH.  xi.  The  First  Mithridatic  War.  149 

mans  wished  to  destroy.  Didius  told  them  that  he 
would  give  them  the  lands  of  Colenda,  and  they  came 
to  receive  their  allotments.  As  soon  as  they  were 
within  his  lines,  his  soldiers  set  on  them  and  slew 
them  all. 

In  96  B.  c.  Ptolemaus  Apion  bequeathed  Cyrene  — a 
narrow  strip   of  terraced   land   on   the   north  coast   of 
Africa,  situated  between  the  Lybian  deserts 
and    the    Mediteiranean— to   Rome.      The  Afnca* 

Romans  did  not  refuse  the  legacy ;  but  they  took  no 
trouble  to  govern  the  country.  The  cities  of  Cyrene  were 
declared  to  be  free.  In  other  words,  while  nominally 
subject  to  Rome,  so  that  she  might  interfere  when  she 
pleased,  they  were  left  to  govern  themselves.  Such 
government  was  no  government ;  but  it  was  in  accord- 
ance with  the  deliberate  policy  of  the  senatorial  party. 

It  was  in  the  same  year  that  Mithridates  committed 
the  first  of  the  series  of  crimes  which  eventually  brought 
him  into  collision   with  Rome.     His   sister 
had    married    the     King    of    Cappadocia.        SlTgtfes  of 
Mithridates  assassinated  him.     Nicomedes,        Mithri- 

'  dates. 

King  of  Bithynia,  seized  Cappadocia  and 
married  the  widowed  sister  of  Mithridates.  Having  slain 
one  brother-in-law,  Mithridates  expelled  the  other,  and 
set  on  the  throne  his  sister's  son.  But  when  his  nephew 
refused  to  welcome  home  Gordius,  the  man  who  had 
murdered  his  father,  Mithridates  marched  against  and 
assassinated  him.  Then  he  set  on  the  throne  his  own 
son,  to  whom  he  gave  his  nephew's  name,  and  made 
Gordius  his  guardian.  Him  the  Cappadocians  expelled, 
and  raised  to  the  throne  another  nephew  of  Mithridates ; 
but  Mithridates  instantly  drove  him  from  power.  Nico- 
medes now  appealed  to  the  Senate,  and  produced,  as 
he  asserted,  a  third  nephew  of  Mithridates  as  a  claimant 


150  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.        CH.  xi. 

for  the  crown.  To  support  his  assertion  he  sent  his  wife 
to  Rome  to  swear  she  had  had  three  sons,  Mithridates, 
as  if  in  burlesque  of  the  imposture,  sent  Gordius  to  swear 
that  the  youth  on  the  throne  was  son  of  a  Cappadocian 
king  who  had  died  more  than  thirty  years  before.  The 
Senate  decided  as  a  lion  might  between  two  jackals 
quarrelling  over  a  carcase.  It  took  Cappadocia  from 
Mithridates  and  Paphlagonia  from  Nicomedes,  and  de- 
clared both  countries  free.  But  the  Cappadocians 
clamoured  for  a  king,  and  so,  in  93,  the  Senate  appointed 
.Ariobarzanes  I.  Mithridates  then  stirred  up  Tigranes, 
King  of  Armenia,  to  expel  Ariobarzanes,  who  fled  to 
Rome.  Sulla  was  sent  to  restore  him,  and  did  so  in  92, 
after  defeating  the  Cappadocians  under  Gordius  and  the 
Armenians.  It  was  when  he  was  on  this  mission  that  the 
Romans  and  Parthians  confronted  each 
mu's  come  other  for  the  first  time.  The  Parthians  sent 
with'the  an  embassy  to  ask  for  the  alliance  of  Rome. 

Parthians.  Three  chairs  were  set  for  Ariobarzanes, 
Sulla,  and  Orobazus ;  and  Sulla,  who  was  only  proprae- 
tor, took  the  central  seat.  This  incensed  the  Parthian 
king;  and  he  revenged  himself  not  on  Sulla,  but  on 
the  unfortunate  Orobazus,  whom  he  put  to  death.  A 
Chaldean  in  the  Parthian's  suite,  after  studying  Sulla's 
face,  predicted  great  things  for  him ;  which  pleased 
Sulla  as  much  as  it  would  have  done  Marins,  for  he 
believed  in  his  luck  just  as  his  rival  did  in  his  seventh 
consulship.  But  when  he  came  home  he  was  impeached 
for  taking  bribes  from  Ariobarzanes,  and  no  doubt  he 
had  made  his  trip  which  was  so  gratifying  to  his  pride 
not  less  profitable  also,  and  had  had  his  appetite  whetted 
for  a  second  taste  of  eastern  treasures.  Mithridates, 
meanwhile,  was  brooding  over  his  humiliation  and  medi- 
tating revenge.  He  went  on  a  journey  incognito  through 


CH.  xi.  TJie  First  Mithridatic  War.  151 

the  Roman  province  of  Asia  and  Bithynia,  intending  to 
attack  both  if  he  found  himself  strong  enough.  When 
he  came  back  he  found  that  his  wife,  who  was  also  his 
sister,  had  been  unfaithful  to  him.  and  he  put  her  to 
death.  He  had  now  murdered  a  wife,  a  sister,  a  brother, 
and  a  nephew.  He  had  also  imprisoned  his  mother, 
and  was  equally  merciless  to  his  sons,  his  daughters,  and 
his  concubines.  At  his  death,  it  is  said,  a  paper  was 
found  in  which  he  had  foredoomed  his  most  trusted 
servants,  and  he  slew  all  the  inmates  of  his  harem  in 
order  to  hinder  them  from  falling  into  his  enemies' 
hands. 

His  whole  history  is  in  fact  one  long  record  of  sensu- 
ality, treachery,  and  murder.  From  his  earliest  years 
he  had  breathed,  as  it  were,  an  atmosphere 

li.arly    year\ 

of  assassination.  His  father  had  been  as-  ofMithri- 
sassinated  when  he  was  eleven  years  old. 
His  guardians  and  even  his  own  mother  had  then  plotted 
to  assassinate  him.  They  placed  him  on  a  wild  horse, 
and  made  him  perform  exercises  with  the  javelin  on  it. 
When  his  precocious  vigour  defeated  their  hopes,  they 
tried  to  poison  him.  But  by  studying  antidotes  he  made 
his  body  poison  proof,  or  at  least  was  reputed  to  have 
done  so,  and,  flying  from  his  enemies,  lived  for  seven 
years  through  all  the  hardships  of  a  wild  and  wandering 
life,  in  which  he  never  slept  under  a  roof,  and  hunted 
and  fought  with  wild  beasts,  to  emerge  in  manhood  a 
very  tiger  himself  for  strength,  and  beauty  of  body,  and 
ferocity  of  disposition,  a  tyrant  who  spared  neither  man 
in  his  ambition  nor  woman  in  his  lust.  His  stature  was 
gigantic,  his  strength  and  activity  such  as  took  captive 
the  imagination  of  the  East.  He  could,  it  was  believed, 
outrun  the  deer ;  out-eat  and  out-drink 
everyone  at  the  banquet ;  strike  down  fly-  vigour/"0 


152  The  Gracchi,  Mariusy  and  Sulla.       CH.  xi. 

ing  game  unerringly ;  tame  the  wildest  steed,  and 
ride  120  miles  in  a  day.  Twenty-two  nations  obeyed 
him,  and  he  could  speak  the  dialect  of  each.  A 
veneer  of  Greek  refinement  was  spread  thinly  over  the 
savage  animalism  of  the  man.  He  was  a  virtuoso,  and 
had  a  wonderful  collection  of  rings.  He 
cMlizadon  maintained  Greek  poets  and  historians,  and 
°f  his  offered  prizes  for  singing.  He  had  shrewd- 

ness enough  to  employ  Greek  generals,  but 
not  enough  to  keep  him  from  being  grossly  superstitious. 
For  twenty   years    (110-90   B.C.)    he  had  been  with 
never-resting  activity  extending  his  empire,  before  the 
Romans   assailed   him.     He  had  inherited 
His  king-          from  his  ancestors  the  kingdom  of  Pontus, 

dom  and 

how  it  was  or  Cappadocia  on  the  Pontus>  which  had 
been  one  of  the  two  satrapies  into  which 
Cappadocia  was  divided  at  the  time  of  the  Macedonian 
conquest.  Mithridates  IV.  had  married  a  princess  of  the 
Greek  race,  the  sister  of  Seleucus,  King  of  Syria.  His 
grandfather  had  conquered  Sinope  and  Paphlagonia,  as 
far  as  the  Bithynian  frontier.  His  father  had  helped  the 
Romans  in  the  third  Punic  War,  had  been  styled  the 
friend  of  Rome,  and  had  been  rewarded  with  the  pro- 
vince of  Phrygia  nominally  for  his  services  against  Aris- 
tonicus,  the  pretender  to  the  kingdom  of  Attains,  but 
had  been  deprived  of  it  afterwards  when  it  was  found  out 
that  really  it  had  been  put  up  for  auction  by  Manius 
Aquillius,  who  was  completing  the  subjugation  of  the  ad- 
herents of  the  pretender.  The  boundaries  of  Pontus  at 
his  accession  cannot  be  strictly  defined.  On  the  east  it 
stretched  towards  the  Caucasus  and  the  sources  of  the 
Euphrates,  Lesser  Armenia  being  dependent  on  it.  On 
the  south  and  south-we§t  its  frontiers  were  Cappadocia 
and  Galatia.  On  the  west  nominally  Paphlagonia  was 


CH.  xi.  The  First  Mithridatic  War.  153 

the  frontier,  for  the  grandfather  of  Mithridates  had  been 
induced  by  the  Romans  to  promise  to  evacuate  his  con- 
quests. But  Sinope  was  then,  and  continued  to  be,  the 
capital  of  the  Pontic  kingdom,  and  both  Paphlagonia  and 
Galatia  were  virtually  dependent.  This  was  the  territory 
to  which  Mithridates  was  heir,  and  which,  true  to  the 
policy  of  his  father  and  grandfather,  he  constantly  strove 
by  force  or  fraud  to  extend.  To  the  east  of 
the  Black  Sea  he  conquered  Colchis  on  the  dlteVex- 
Phasis,  and  converted  it  into  a  satrapy. 
To  the  north  he  was  hailed  as  the  deliverer 
of  the  Greek  towns  on  that  coast  and  in  the  region  now 
known  as  the  Crimea,  which  from  the  constant  exaction 
of  tribute  by  barbarous  tribes  were,  in  the  absence  of 
any  protectorate  like  that  of  Athens,  falling  into  decay. 
By  sea,  and  perhaps  across  the  Caucasus  by  land,  Mith- 
ridates sent  his  troops  under  the  Greek  generals  Neopto- 
lemus  and  Diophantus.  Neoptolemus  won  a  victory 
over  the  Tauric  Scythians  at  Panticapaeum  (Kertch),  and 
the  kingdom  of  Bosporus  in  the  Crimea  was  ceded  to 
his  master  by  its  grateful  king.  Diophantus  marched 
westwards  as  far  as  the  Tyras  (Dneister),  and  in  a  great 
battle  almost  annihilated  an  army  of  the  Roxolani,  a 
nomadic  people  who  roamed  between  the  Borysthenes 
(Dneiper)  and  the  Tanais  (Don).  By  these  conquests 
Mithridates  acquired  a  tribute  of  200  talents  (48,0007.), 
and  270,000  bushels  of  grain,  and  a  rich  recruiting  ground 
for  his  armies.  On  the  east  he  annexed  Lesser  Armenia, 
and  entered  into  the  closest  alliance  with 

His  alh- 

Tigranes,  King  of  Greater  Armenia,  wnich          ance  with 
had  lately  become  a  powerful  kingdom,  giv- 
ing him  his  daughter  Cleopatra  in  marriage.    If  the  allies 
had  any  defined  scheme  of  conquest,  it  was  that  Mithri- 
dates should  occupy  Asia  Minor  and  the  coast  of  the 


154  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  xi. 

Black  Sea,  and  Tigranes  the  interior  and  Syria.  How 
the  King  intrigued  and  meddled  in  Cappadocia  and 
Bithynia  has  been  previously  related ;  and  when  he  had 
marched  into  Cappadocia  it  was  at  the  head  of  80,000 
foot,  10,000  horse,  and  600  scythed  chariots. 

Such  was  the  history,  the  power,  and  the  character  of 
the  great  potentate  who  had  yielded  to  the  demands  of 
Sulla,  the  propraetor,  but  who  now  awaited  the  attack  of 
Sulla,  the  proconsul,  with  proud  disdain.  Muc"h,  indeed, 
had  happened  since  the  year  92  to  justify  such  feelings. 
Hardly  had  Sulla  reinstated  Ariobarzanes  when  Tigranes 
drove  him  out  again,  and  restored  the  son  of  Mithridates ; 
while  in  Bithynia  the  younger  son  of  Nicomedes,  Soc- 
rates, appeared  in  arms  against  his  elder  brother,  Nico- 
medes JBJ  who  on  his  father's  death  had  been  acknow- 
ledged as  king  by  Rome.  Socrates  had  soldiers  from 
Pontus  with  him  ;  but  Mithridates,  though  his  hand  was 
plain  in  these  disturbances,  outwardly  stood  aloof;  and 
the  Senate,  sending  Manius  Aquillius  to  restore  the  two 
kings,  ordered  Mithridates  to  aid  him  with  troops  if  they 
were  wanted.  The  king  submitted  as  be- 
dates^ub-  f°re»  not>  indeed,  sending  troops,  but  with- 
A'uillius  out  resistmg«  and  as  a  proof  of  his  compla- 

cency put  Socrates  to  death.  This  hap- 
pened in  the  year  90,  when  Rome  was  pressed  hardest 
by  the  Italians,  and  at  first  sight  it  seems  astonishing 
that  he  should  not  have  seized  on  so  favourable  a 
moment.  But  in  those  days  news  would  travel  from  the 
west  of  Italy  to  Sinope  but  slowly  and  uncertainly,  and 
Mithridates  would  have  the  fate  of  Antiochus  in  mind  to 
warn  him  how  the  foes  of  the  great  republic  fared,  and 
the  history  of  Pergamus  to  testify  to  the  prosperity  of 
those  who  remained  its  friends.  Sulla's  proud  tone  in  92 
would  not  have  lessened  this  impression  ;  and,  before  he 


CH.  xi.  The  First  Mithridatic  War.  155 

appealed  to  force,  the  crafty  king  hoped  to  make  his 
position  securer  by  fraud.  Partly,  therefore,  from  real 
awe,  partly  because  he  was  not  yet  ready,  he  obeyed 
Aquillius  as  he  had  obeyed  Sulla.  But  Aquillius,  who 
had  once  put  up  Phrygia  to  auction,  knew  what  pickings 
there  were  for  a  senator  when  war  was  afoot  in  Asia,  and 
perhaps  may  have  had  the  honester  notion  that,  as 
Mithridates  was  sure  to  go  to  war  soon,  it  was  for  the 
public  as  well  as  for  his  private  interest  to  act  boldly 
and  strike  the  first  blow.  So  he  forced  the  reluctant 
Bithynian  king  to  declare  war,  and  to  ravage  with  an 
army  the  country  round  Amastris  while  his  fleet  shut  up 
the  Bosporus.  Still  Mithridates  did  not  stir  ;  all  that  he 
did  was  to  lodge  a  complaint  with  the  Romans,  and 
solicit  their  mediation  or  their  permission  to  defend  him- 
self. Aquillius  replied  that  he  must  in  no 

Aquillius 

case  make  war  on  Nicomedes.    It  is  easy  to  forces  on 

conceive   how  such   an   answer  affected  a 
man  of  the  king's  temper.     He  instantly  sent  his  son 
with  an  army  into  Cappadocia.     But  once  more  he  tried 
diplomacy.     Pelopidas,  his   envoy,   came   to  Aquillius, 
and  said  that  his  master  was  willing  to  aid  . 

D  Ultimatum 

the  Romans  against  the  Italians  if  the  Ro-  of  Mithri- 
mans  would  forbid  Nicomedes  to  attack 
him,  their  ally.  If  not,  he  wished  the  alliance  to  be 
formally  dissolved.  Or  there  was  yet  another  alter- 
native. Let  the  commissioners  and  himself  appeal  to 
the  Senate  to  decide  between  them.  The  commissioners 
treated  the  message  as  an  insult.  Mithridates,  they  said, 
must  not  attack  Nicomedes,  and  they  intended  to  restore 
Ariobarzanes.  Possibly  the  conduct  of  Aquillius  was  due 
to  his  having  been  heavily  bribed  by  Nicomedes,  who 
must  have  felt  that  when  the  Romans  were  gone  he 
would  be  like  a  mouse  awaiting  the  cat's  spring ;  for  it  is 


v56  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  xi. 

Difficult  to  imagine  the  foolhardiness  which  without  some 
fcuch  tangible  stimulus  would  at  that  moment  have 
Blunged  him  into  war. 

But  when  once  the  die  was  cast,  Mithridates  threw 
himself  into  the  war  with  the  energy  of  long-suppressed 
rage.  He  sent  to  court  the  alliance  of  Egypt 
Emrrgy^jf1"        an<^  tne  Cretan  league,  to  whom  he  repre- 
da!tesn"  sented  himself  as  the  champion  of  Greece 

against  her  tyrant.  He  tried  to  stir  up  re- 
volts in  Thrace  and  Macedonia.  He  arranged  with  Ti- 
granes  that  an  Armenian  army  should  co-operate  with 
him,  leaving  him  the  land  it  occupied,  but  carrying  off 
the  plunder.  He  gave  the  word,  and  a  swarm  of  pirate 
ships  swept  the  Mediterranean  under  his  colours.  He 
summoned  an  army  of  250,000  foot.  40,000  horse,  and 
130  scythed  chariots,  a  fleet  of  300  decked  vessels,  and 
loo  other  ships  called  <f  Dicrota  "  with  a  double  bank  of 
oars.  He  formed  and  armed  in  Roman  fashion  a  for- 
eign contingent,  in  which  many  Romans  and  Italians 
enlisted  ;  and  he  placed  able  Greek  generals,  Archelaus 
and  Neoptolemus,  over  his  troops.  To  meet  this  for- 
midable array  the  Romans  had  a  fleet  off 
Forces  of  Byzantium,  the  army  of  Nicomedes,  which 

Kome.  * 

was  still  between  Sinope  and  Amastris,  and 
three  corps,  each  of  40,000  men,  but  composed  for  the 
most  part  of  hastily  organized  Asiatics  ;  one  under  Cas- 
sius  between  Bithynia  and  Galatia,  another  under 
Aquillius  between  Bithynia  and  Pontus,  and  a  third 
under  Oppius  in  Cappadocia.  The  war  was  decided 
almost  in  a  single  battle.  Neoptolemus  and  Archelaus 
routed  the  Bithynian  army  on  the  river  Amnias,  and 
captured  the  camp  and  military  chest.  It  was  a  fierce 
and  for  some  time  a  doubtful  fight,  and  seems  to  have 
been  decided  by  the  scythed  chariots,  which  spread 


CH.  xi.  The  First  Mithridatic  War.  157 

terror    in     the     Bithynian     ranks.      Nico-        JJithriiyof 
medes  fled  to  Aquillius,  who  was  defeated        dates  over 
by  Archelaus   near   Mount   Scorobas,    and 
fled  with  the  king  across  the  Sangarius  to  Pergamus, 
whence    he    attempted   to    reach    Rhodes. 

Victory  of 

Cassius  retreated  to  Phrygia,  and  tried  to      over 
discipline  his  raw  levies.     But,  finding  this 
impossible,  he  broke  up  the  army  and  led  the  Roman 
troops  with  him  to  Apameia..    The  fleet  in  the  Black  Sea 
was  surrendered  by  its  commander. 

Thus,  triumphant  by  sea  and  land,  Mithridates,  after 
settling  Bithynia,  marched  through  Phrygia  and  Mysia 
into  the  Roman  province  Asia,  and  was  hailed  everywhere 
as  a  deliverer,  for  after  his  victories  he  had  sent  home 
all  his  Asiatic  prisoners  with  presents.  Then 

r  Mithridates 

he  sent  messengers  into  Lycia  and  Pamphy-    progress 

..     .  .  through  Phry- 

lia  to  seek  the  alliance  of  those  countries.    gia,  Mysia, 
Oppius  was  in  Laodicea,  on  the  Lycus.    The    and  Asla> 
king  offered  the  townsmen  immunity  if  they  surrendered 
to  him,  and  when  they  did  so,  carried  him  about  as  a 
show.     Aquillius  was  also  given  up  by  the 
Mytileneans  and  made  to  ride  in  chains  on      Aquillius. 
an  ass,  calling  out  who  he  was  wherever  he 
went.     At  Pergamus  Mithridates   slew  him  by  pouring 
molten  gold   down   his   throat — a  savage   punishment, 
which,  however,   confirms   the   impression  that  it  was 
Roman  avarice  which  forced  on  the  war.     Magnesia,  on 
the  Maender,  Ephesus,  and  Mitylene  welcomed  the  king 
joyfully,  and  Stratoniceia,  in  Caria,  was  captured.     He 
then  attacked  Magnesia  near  Mount  Sipylus,  prepared 
to  invade  Rhodes,  and  issued  a  hideous  order  for  an  ex- 
terminating massacre  of  every  Roman  and  Italian  in 
Asia   on   an    appointed   day.      Punishments  were   pro- 
claimed to  any  one  who  should  hide  one  of  the  proscribed 


158  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  XL 

or  bury  his  body ;  rewards  were  promised  for  all  who 
killed  or  denounced  them.  Slaves  who  slew  their  mas- 
ters were  to  be  freed.  The  murder  of  a  creditor  was  to 
be  taken  as  payment  by  a  debtor  of  half  his  debt.  There 
were  dreadful  scenes  on  the  fatal  day — the 

Massacre  of  . 

Romans  and      thirtieth  after  the  order  was  issued— in  the 

Italians.  .....  iii  1  •        •   •  rt      i 

Asiatic  cities.  In  Pergamus  the  citizens  fled 
to  the  temple  of  yEsculapius,  and  were  shot  down 
as  they  clung  to  the  statues.  At  Ephesus  they  were 
dragged  out  from  the  temple  of  Artemis  and  slain.  At 
Adramyttium  they  swam  out  to  sea,  but  were  brought 
back  and  killed,  and  their  children  were  drowned.  At 
Cos  alone  was  any  mercy  shown.  There  those  who  had 
taken  refuge  in  the  temple  of  ^Esculapius  were  spared. 
The  number  of  the  slain  was  said  to  be  80,000  or  even 
120,000,  which  must  have  been,  however,  an  incredible 
exaggeration.  By  his  fiendish  crime  Mithridates  must, 
though  he  was  mistaken,  have  felt  that  he  cut  himself  off 

for  ever  from  all  reconciliation  with  Rome. 
Objects  of  j}ut  no  doubt  he  acted  on  calculation.  For 

the  massacre. 

net  only  did  he  get  rid  of  men  who  might 
have  recruited  the  Roman  armies  ;  not  only  did  he  gra- 
tify the  long-hoarded  hatred  of  the  farmers  and  peasants 
of  whom  Roman  publicani  and  Roman  slave-masters 
had  so  long  made  a  prey ;  not  only  did  he  oblige  the 
debtors  by  wiping  out  their  debts  and  even  the  very 
memory  of  them  in  their  creditor's  blood,  but  he  might 
well  count  on  putting  his  accomplices  also  beyond  the 
pale  of  Roman  mercy,  and  so  linking  them  to  his  own 
fortunes.  Moreover,  vengeance  seemed  remote.  For 

Sulla  had  just  marched  on  Rome  instead  of 
settiemen^of  to  the  east,  and  a  civil  war  in  Italy  might 
quiJitions0  make  Mithridates  permanently  supreme  in 

Asia.  So  he  made  Pegamus  his  capital,  leav- 


CH.  xn.  Sulla  in  Greece  and  Asia.  159 

ing  Sinope  to  his  son  as  vicegerent,  while  Cappadocia, 
Phrygia,  and  Bithynia  were  turned  into  satrapies.  All 
arrears  of  taxes  were  remitted ;  and  so  wealthy  had  his 
spoils  made  him  that  exemption  for  five  years  to  come 
was  promised  to  the  towns  that  had  obeyed  his  orders. 

But  the  tide  was  already  on  the  turn.    In  Paphlagonia 
there  was  still  resistance.     Archelaus  was  repulsed  and 
wounded  at  Magnesia.     Mithridates  in  per- 
son  was   forced   to   abandon    the   siege   of      JVrv,er.ses  of 

Mithridates 

Rhodes.     His  revenge  was  sated ;  he  was 
tired  of  the  hardships  of  war  which  he  meant  his  generals 
to  conduct  in  future ;  and  with  a  new  wife  he  went  back 
to  Pergamus,  to  his  rings,  and  his  music,  and 
debaucheries,  at  the  very  time  that  a  shud-      J?e  retires  to 

.rergamus. 

der  had  gone  through  Italy  at  the  tidings 

of  the   massacre,  and  when  Sulla  was   on   his   way  to 

avenge  it. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SULLA   IN   GREECE  AND   ASIA. 

A  CITIZEN  of  Athens,  named  Aristion,  whose  mother 
was  an  Egyptian  slave,  and  who  was  the  son  or  adopted 
son  of  one  Athenion,  had  been  sent  by  the 
Athenians   as   ambassador   to    Mithridates.         Aristion  at 

Athens. 

He  had  been  a  schoolmaster  and  teacher 
of  rhetoric,  and  professed  the  philosophy  of  Epicurus. 
He  gained  the  ear  of  Mithridates,  and  sent  home  flaming 
accounts  of  the  king's  power,  and  of  his  intention  of  re- 
storing the  democracy  at  Athens.  The  Athenians  sent 
some  ships  of  war  to  bring  him  home  from  Eubcea,  with 


160  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.      CH.  xn. 

a  present  of  a  silver-footed  litter ;  and  in  this,  clothed 
in  purple,  and  with  a  fine  ring  on  his  finger,  which  he 
had  got  probably  from  his  friend  Mithridates,  he  came 
back  to  Athens  with  much  parade.  In  a  set  speech  he 
dilated  on  the  king's  splendid  successes,  and  advised 

the  people  to  declare  themselves  indepen- 
Athens  dent  and  elect  him  their  general.  They  did 

from  Rome.  s<_^  ^^  ^e  very  soon  massacred  his  oppo- 
nents and  made  himself  despot.  Thus  Athens  and  the 
Piraeus  passed  into  the  hands  of  Mithridates.  The  spirit 

of  disaffection  to  Rome  spread  rapidly- 
Revolt  of  when  Archelaus  appeared  in  Greece,  the 
Achaeans,  Achaeans,  Laconians,  and  Boeotians,  with 

Laconians, 

and  the    exception    of    Thespiae,    joined    him, 

Boeotians.  ...         .         _.  n  .    ._.    . 

while  the  Pontic  fleet  seized  Eubcea  and 
Demetrias,  a  town  at  the  head  of  the  gulf  of  Pagasae. 

Sura  was  sent  by  the  Roman  governor  of  Macedonia 
to  make  head  against  the  invaders.  He  won  a  naval 
battle  and  captured  Sciathus,  where  all  the  spoils  of 
the  enemy  were  stored.  Then  he  marched  into  Boeotia, 

Conflicts  and'  after  a  three   days'  engagement  with 

between  the  the  combined  forces  of  Archelaus  and 
and  the  Aristion,  pushed  Archelaus  back  to  the 

Mhhri-°f  coast-     The  war>  perhaps,  might  have  been 

BffiodiT  ended  here;    but  at  this  moment  Lucullus 

came  to  announce  the  approach  of  Sulla, 
and  to  warn  Sura  that  the  war  had  been  entrusted  to 
him.  So  Sura  retired  to  Macedonia.  Sulla  had  left 
Sulla  lands  Brundusium  in  87,  and,  landing  on  the 
\n  Epirus,  coast  of  Epirus,  gathered  what  supplies  he 

87  B  c.,  and  .  ,      e  __..? 

marches  ou  could  from  ^Etolia  and  Thessaly,  and 
Athens.  marched  straight  for  Athens.  It  was  soon 

seen  that  the  foundations  of  the  empire  of  Mithridates 
were  based  on  sand.  The  Boeotians  at  once  submitted, 


CH.  xii.          Sulla  in  Gre.tce  and  Asia..  161 

including    Thebes,    which   had  joined   the 

.    J  Siege  of  the 

king.  Sulla  then  began  two  sieges,  that  of  Piraeus 
the  Piraeus  where  Archelaus  was,  and  that 
of  Athens  defended  by  Aristion.  Archelaus  had  before 
shown  himself  an  intrepid  soldier,  and  he  baffled  all 
Sulla's  efforts  with  equal  ingenuity  and  courage.  After 
an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  storm  the  walls,  Sulla  retired 
to  Eleusis  and  Megara,  thus  keeping  up  his  communica- 
tions with  Thebes  and  the  Peloponnese,  and  set  to  work 
constructing  catapults  and  other  engines,  and  preparing 
an  earthwork  from  which  he  meant  to  attack  the  wall 
with  them.  For  these  purposes  he  cut  down  the  trees  of 
the  Academia  and  the  Lyceum.  He  was  kept  informed 
of  intended  sallies  by  two  slaves  inside  the  town,  who 
threw  out  leaden  balls  with  words  cut  on  them.  But  as 
fast  as  the  earthwork  rose  Archelaus  built 

....  Bat'le  at 

towers  on  the  walls  opposite  to  it,  and  thence      the  Piraens. 
harassed  the  besiegers.     He  was  also  rein-      nearly 
forced  by  Mithridates,  and  then  came  out      taken. 
and  fought  a  battle  which  was  for  some  time  doubtful ; 
but  he  was  forced  to  retire  at  length  with  the  loss  of 
2,000  men.     He  himself  remained  till  the  last.     The 
gates  were  shut  and  he  had  to  be  drawn  up  by  a  rope 
over  the  wall. 

The  affairs  of  Sulla,  however,  were  in  no  flourishing 
condition.  He  had  come  to  Greece  with  only  30,000  men, 
with   no   fleet,  and   little   money.     He  was 
forced  to  plunder  the  shrines  of  Epidaiirns,        5-i1a'si  • 

__  difficulties. 

Olympia,  and  Delphi.  His  messenger  to 
Delphi  came  back  saying  that  he  had  heard  the  sound 
of  a  lute  in  the  temple,  and  dared  not  commit  the  sacri- 
lege. But  Sulla  sent  him  back,  saying  that  he  was  sure 
the  sound  was  a  note  of  welcome,  and  that  the  god 
meant  him  to  have  the  treasure.  He  promised  to  pay  it 
If 


1 62  The  Gracchi,  Afarius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  xn. 

back  some  day,  and  he  kept  his  word,  for  he  confiscated 
half  the  land  of  Thebes  and  applied  the  proceeds  to  re- 
imbursing the  sacred  funds.  In  his  worst  straits  he  was 
always  ready  with  some  such  mockery.  Winter  was 
now  at  hand,  and  Sulla  despatched  Lucullus 

Sulla  sends 

Lucullus  to  Egypt  to  get  ships.     The  refusal  of  the 

King  of  Egypt  shows  what  was  now 
thought  of  the  Roman  power.  Sulla  then  formed  a  camp 
at  Eleusis  and  continued  the  siege,  and  so  shook  the 
great  tower  of  Archelaus  by  a  simultaneous  discharge  of 
twelve  leaden  balls  from  his  catapults  that  it  had  to  be 
drawn  back.  By  means  of  the  two  slaves  he  was  also 
able  to  frustrate  the  attempts  of  Archelaus  to  throw 

supplies  into  Athens,  which  was  now  suffer- 
Athensde  °f  *n£  ^rom  hunger,  for  Sulla  had  surrounded 

it  with  forts  and  turned  the  siege  into  a 
blockade.  Mithridates  now  sent  his  son  into  Macedonia 
with  an  army,  before  which  the  small  Roman  force  there 
had  to  retire.  After  this  success  the  prince  marched 
towards  Athens,  but  died  on  the  way.  At  the  Piraeus 
scenes  occurred  which  were  afterwards  repeated  at  the 
siege  of  Jerusalem.  Archelaus  undermined  the  earth- 
work and  Sulla  made  another  determined  attempt  to  take 
the  wall  by  storm.  He  battered  down  part  of  it,  fired  the 

props  of  his  mine  and  so  brought  down 
of  more,  and  sent  troops  by  relays  to  escalade 
*]?e  the  breach.  But  Archelaus,  like  the  Platae- 

Piraeus. 

ans  in  the  Peloponnesian  war,  built  an  inner 
crescent-shaped  wall,  from  which  he  took  the  assailants 
in  front  and  on  both  flanks  when  they  tried  to  advance. 

At  last,  wearied  by  this  dogged  resistance, 
fh^siegT5  s"lla  turned  the  siege  of  the  Piraeus  also 
blockade.  *nto  a  Blockade,  w^ich  meant  simply  that 

he  hindered  Archelaus  from  helping  Athens, 


CH.  xn.  Sulla  in  Greece  and  Asia.  163 

for  he  could  not  prevent  the  influx  of  supplies  from  the 
sea. 

Athens   meanwhile  was  in   dreadful   straits.     Wheat 
was  selling  at  nearly  3/.  lay.  a  gallon,  and  the  inhabitants 
were  feeding  on  old  leather  bottles,  shoes,  and  the  bodies 
of  the  dead.      A  deputation  came   out,  but  Sulla   sent 
them  back  because  they  began  an  harangue  on  the  deeds 
of  their  ancestors,  put  into  their  mouths,  no  doubt,  by 
the  rhetorician  Aristion.     Sulla  told  them  they  were  the 
scum  of  nations,  not  descended  from  the  old  Athenians 
at  all,  and  that  instead  of  listening  to  their  rhetoric  he 
meant  to   punish  their  rebellion.     On   the 
night  of  March    I,  86  B.C.,   he  broke  into          4?e™ 
the  town  amid  the  blare  of  trumpets  and          ^^86  *' 
the  shouts  of  his  troops.     He  told  his  men 
to  give  no  quarter,  and  the  blood,  it  is  said,  ran  down 
through  the  gates  into  the  suburbs.  Aristion 
fled  to  the  Acropolis.     Hunger  forced  him  ^a!nion 

in  the  end  to  capitulate,  and  he  was  killed. 
Sulla  meanwhile  had  forced  on  the  siege  of  Piraeus  still 
more  vigorously.     He  got  past  the  crescent  wall,  only  to 
find  other  walls  similarly  constructed  behind  it;  but  he 
gradually  drove  Archelaus  into  Munychia,  or  the  penin- 
sula part  of  Piraeus,  and  as  he  had  no  ships  he  could  do 
nothing  more.     Either  before  or  after  the  capture  of  the 
Acropolis  Archelaus  sailed  away,  in  obedience  to  a  sum- 
mons  from    Taxiles,  a  new  general  whom 
Mithridates  had  sent  with  an  army  of  100,-      Archelaus 
ooo  foot,  10,000  horse,  and  ninety  scythed      Pirius, 
chariots  into  Greece.   With  these  forces  and      T^ie^sent 
the  troops  previously  sent  with  his  master's      *jy  Mith.ri; 

dates  with 

son  he  formed  a  junction  at  Thermopylae,      reinforce- 

marched  into  Phocis  down  the  valley  of  the 

Cephissus,  attempted   but   failed   to   take   Elateia,  and 


164 


Tht  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  xii, 


came  up  with  Sulla  near  Chseroneia.  Sulla 
had  marched  into  Bceotia  and  joined  Hor- 
tensius,  who  had  brought  some  troops  from 
Thessaly.  But  he  is  said  by  Appian  to  have 
had  not  a  third  of  the  enemy's  numbers,  while  Plutarch 
affirms  that  he  had  only  15,000  loot  and  1,500  horse. 


Sulla  forms 
a  junction 
with 
Hortensius. 


<3  Elatea 


Map  to 

Illustrate  the  March  of 

SULLA  &  ARCHELAUS 

BEFORE  CHJERONEA 


Sulla  was  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Cephis- 
sus,  on  an  eminence  named  Philobceotus, 
and  Archelaus  on  the  other  side  of  the  river 
not  far  off.  Sulla's  soldiers  were  alarmed  by  the  num- 
bers and  splendour  of  the  enemy,  for  the  brass  and 
steel  of  their  armour  "  kindled  the  air  with  an  awful 
flame  like  that  of  lightning."  Archelaus, 
marching  down  the  valley  of  the  Cephis- 
sus,  tried  to  seize  a  strong  position  called 
the  Acropolis  of  the  Parapotamii,  situated  on  the  Assus, 


Position  of 
the  two 
armies. 


Manoeuvres 
of  Sulla  and 
Archelaus. 


CH.  xii.  Sulla  in  Greece  and  Asia.  165 

which  joined  the  Cephissus  to  the  south  of  both 
armies.  But  Sulla,  who  had  wearied  out  his  men  by 
drudgery  in  dyke-making,  and  made  them  eager  for  a 
fight,  crossed  the  Cephissus,  seized  the  position  first,  and 
then,  crossing  the  Assus,  took  up  his  position  under 
Mount  Edylium.  Here  he  encamped  opposite  Archelaus, 
who,  having  also  crossed  the  Assus,  was  now  at  a  place 
called  Assia,  which  was  nearer  Lake  Copais.  Thence 
Archelaus  made  an  attempt  on  Chaeroneia  ;  but  Sulla 
was  again  beforehand  with  him,  and  garrisoned  the 
place  with  one  legion  South  of  Chaeroneia  was  a  hill 
called  Thurium.  This  Archelaus  seized.  Sulla  then 
brought  the  rest  of  his  troops  across  the  Cephissus,  to 
form  a  junction  with  the  legion  in  Chaeroneia  and  dis- 
lodge the  enemy  from  Thurium.  He  left  Murena  on  the 
north  of  the  Cephissus  to  keep  the  enemy  in  check  at 
Assia.  Archelaus,  however,  also  brought  his  main  army 
across  the  Cephissus  after  Sulla.  Murena  followed  him, 
and  Sulla  drew  up  his  army  with  his  cavalry  on  each 
wing,  himself  commanding  the  right  and  Murena  the 
left.  The  armies  were  now  opposite  each  other,  Sulla  to 
the  south,  then  Archelaus,  then  the  Cephissus. 

Sulla  sent  some  troops  round  Thurium  to  the  hills 
behind  Chaeroneia,  and  in  the  enemy's  rear.  The  enemy 
ran  down  in  confusion  from  Thurium,  where 
they  were  met  by  Murena  with  Sulla's  left  charoSeia 
wing,  and  were  either  destroyed  or  driven 
back  upon  the  centre  of  the  line  of  Archelaus,  which 
they  threw  into  disorder.  Sulla  on  the  right  advanced 
so  quickly  as  to  prevent  the  scythed  chariots  from  get- 
ting any  impetus,  by  which  they  were  rendered  useless, 
for  the  soldiers  easily  eluded  them  when  driven  at  a 
slow  pace,  and  as  soon  as  they  had  passed  killed  the 
horses  and  drivers.  Archelaus  now  extended  his  right 


1 66 


The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.      CH.  xn. 


wing  in  order  to  surround  Murena.  Hortensius,  whom 
Sulla  had  posted  on  some  hills  to  the  left  of  his  left  wing 
on  purpose  to  defeat  this  manoeuvre,  immediately  pressed 
forward  to  attack  this  body  on  its  left  flank.  But  Arche- 
laus  drove  him  back  with  some  cavalry,  and  nearly  sur- 
rounded Hortensius.  Sulla  hastened  to  his  aid,  and 
Archelaus,  seeing  him  coming,  instantly  counter-marched 
and  attacked  Sulla's  right  in  his  absence,  while  Taxiles 
assailed  Murena  on  the  left.  But  Sulla  hastened  back, 


SECOND  POSITION 
of  the  Two  Armies 
AT  CH/ERONEA 


too,  after  leaving  Hortensius  to  support  Murena,  and, 
when  he  appeared,  the  right  wing  drove  back  Archelaus 
to  the  Cephissus.  Murena  was  equally  triumphant  on 
the  left  wing,  and  the  barbarians  fled  pell-mell  to  the 
Cephissus,  only  10,000  of  them  reaching  Chalcis  in 
Eubcea.  Appian  say;  the  Romans  lost  only 
thirteen  men,  while  Plutarch,  on  the  autho- 
rity of  Sulla's  Memoirs,  says  that  they  lost 
four.  This  is  absurd.  Sulla  seems  to  have 


Sulla's 
falsehood 
about   the 
battle. 


CH.  xii.  Sulla  in  Greece  and  Asia.  167 

told  some  startling  lies  in  his  Memoirs,  perhaps  to  prove 
that  he  had  been  the  favourite  of  fortune,  which  was  a 
mania  of  his. 

Mithridates,  when  he  heard  of  the  defeat  of  Archelaus, 
sent  Dorylaus  with  8,000  men  to  Eubcea,  where  he 
joined  the  remnant  of  the  army  of  Arche- 

Dorylaus 

laus,  and  crossing  to  the  mainland  met  reimorces 
Sulla  at  Orchomenus.  Sulla  was  in  Phthio- 
tis  to  confront  L.  Valerius  Flaccus  who  had  come  to 
supersede  him,  but  he  returned  as  soon  as  he  heard  that 
Dorylaus  had  landed.  Orchomenus  is  just  north  of  the 
Cephissus  where  it  runs  into  Lake  Copais,  and  a  stream 
called  Melas,  rising  on  the  east  of  Orchomenus,  joined 
the  Cephissus  near  its  mouth,  the  neighbouring  ground 
being  a  marsh.  Archelaus  did  not  want  to  fight,  but 
Dorylaus  hinted  at  treachery  and  had,  no  doubt,  been 
ordered  by  Mithridates  to  avenge  Chaeroneia.  Near 
Mount  Tilphossium,  however,  to  the  south  of  Lake  Co- 
pais, he  was  worsted  by  Sulla  in  a  skirmish,  and  think- 
ing better  of  the  advice  of  Archelaus  tried  to  prolong 
the  war.  Archelaus,  indeed,  seems  to  have 
commanded  in  the  battle,  for  Mithridates  Battle  of 

Orcho- 

was  shrewd  enough  to  know  when  he  had  a      menus. 

good   general.     He   drew   up   his   army  in      tionSf 

four   lines,  the   scythed    chariots   in    front,       ^rmyelaus's 

behind  them  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  then 

his  auxiliaries,  including  Italian  deserters,   and,  lastly, 

his  light-armed  troops.     On  each  flank  he  posted  his 

cavalry.     Sulla,    who   was   weak   in    cavalry,    dug   two 

ditches  guarded  by  forts,  one  on  each  flank, 

so  as  to  keep  off  the  enemy's  horse.     Then      fangements. 

he    drew   up    his   infantry  in   three    lines, 

leaving  gaps  in  them  for  the  light  troops  and  cavalry  to 

come  through   from   the   rear   when    needed.     To  the 


1 68  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  xn. 

second  line  stakes  were  given,  with  orders  to  plant  them 
so  as  to  form  a  palisade ;    and  the  first  line  when  the 
chariots  charged,  retired  behind  the  palisade,  while  the 
light  troops  advanced  through  the  gaps  and  hurled  mis- 
siles at  the  horses  and  drivers.     The    chariots   turned 
and  threw  the  phalanx  into  confusion,  and  when  Arche- 
laus  ordered  up  his  cavalry,  Sulla  sent  round  his  to  take 
them  in  the  rear.     At  one  time,  however,  the  contest 
was  doubtful,  and  the   Romans  wavered,  till  they  were 
put  to  shame  by  their  general,  who,  seizing  a  standard 
and  advancing  towards  the  foe,  cried  out,  "When  those 
at  home  ask  where  it  was  you  abandoned  your  leader, 
say,  it  was  at  Orchomenus."   This  great  victory,  in  which 
Sulla  showed   generalship  of  a  high  order,  ended  the 
first  Mithridatic   war.     The   date   is  not  quite  certain. 
Probably  it  happened  in  86. 

After  the  battle  Sulla  wintered  in  Thessaly,  where  he 

built  a  fleet,   being  tired  of  waiting  for   Lucullus.     At 

Delium  he  met  Archelaus  and  each  urged 

Sulla 

winters  in          the  other  to  turn  traitor,  Archelaus  promis- 

hessaiy.          jng  tkat  Mithridates  would  aid  Sulla  against 

Cinna  ;  Sulla  advising  Archelaus  to  dethrone 

He^confers         Mithridates.     It  was  a  curious  way  of  show- 

Archeiaus          msr  the  respect  which  they  entertained  for 

at  Delium. 

each  other's  ability ;  but  Sulla  was  too 
scornful  of  Asiatic  aid,  and  Archelaus  too  loyal  to  listen 
to  such  suggestions.  However,  when  Archelaus  fell  ill 
afterwards,  Sulla  was  so  attentive  to  him,  besides  giving 
him  land  in  Eubcea  and  styling  him  friend  of  the  Roman 
people,  that  it  was  suspected  that  Archelaus  had  been 
playing  into  his  hands  all  along.  It  was  a  most  unlikely 
suspicion  ;  for  nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  now, 
when  Sulla  was  making  terms  with  Mithridates  and 
going  to  meet  Fimbria,  he  should  wish  to  make  Arche- 


CH.  xii.  Sulla  in  Greece  and  Asia.  169 

laus  his  friend.  For  after  all  he  had  resolved  to  forget 
the  Asiatic  massacre  and  not  push  Mithridates  to  despe- 
ration. The  terms  agreed  upon  were  these  :  Terms 
Mithridates  was  to  surrender  Cappadocia,  offered  by 
Paphlagonia,  Bithynia,  Asia,  and  the  islands,  Mithri° 
eighty  ships  of  war,  all  prisoners  and 
deserters  ;  he  was  to  give  pay  and  provisions  to  Sulla's 
men,  and  provide  a  war  indemnity  of  3,000  talents 
(732,ooo/.)  ;  to  restore  to  their  homes  the  refugees  from 
Macedonia,  and  those  whom,  as  will  be  related  hereafter, 
he  had  carried  off  from  Chios ;  and  to  hand  over  more 
of  his  ships  of  war  to  such  states  as  Rhodes  in  alliance 
with  Rome.  Mithridates  was  then  to  be  recognized  as 
the  ally  of  Rome.  He  chafed  at  the  terms,  the  proposal 
of  which  indeed  brought  out  the  long-headed  intrepidity 
of  Sulla's  character  in  the  strongest  light.  Walking,  as 
it  were,  on  the  razor-edge  of  two  precipices,  he  never 
faltered  once.  The  Romans  could  not  charge  him 
with  not  having  carried  into  effect  the  original  purpose 
of  the  war — the  restoration  of  Nicomedes  and  Ariobar- 
zanes — nor  could  Mithridates  fail  in  the  end  to  listen  to 
the  voice  of  Archelaus.  When  he  at  first  rejected  the 
terms,  Sulla  advanced  towards  Asia,  plundering  some  of 
the  barbarous  tribes  on  the  frontiers  of  Macedonia,  and 
reducing  that  province  to  order.  But  Mithridates  did 
not  hesitate  long.  He,  too,  was  in  a  difficult  position. 
The  inhabitants  of  Asia  Minor  soon  found  that  in  yield- 
ing to  him  they  had  exchanged  whips  for  scorpions.  He 
suspected  that  the  defeat  of  Archelaus  at 
Chaeroneia  would  excite  rebellion,  and  he  and  diffi- 

seized  as  many  of  the  Galatian  chiefs  as  he  Mithrt-° 

could,  and  slew  them  with  their  wives  and  dates, 

children.     The    consequence   was    that    the    surviving 
chiefs  expelled  the  man  whom  he  had  sent  as  satrap.   He 


1 70  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH,  xn. 

suspected  the  Chians  also,  and  made  them  give  up  their 
arms  and  the  children  of  their  chief  men  as  hostages. 
Then  he  made  a  requisition  on  them  for  2,000  talents 
(488,ooo/. ),  and  because  they  could  not  raise  the  money, 
or  because  the  tyrant  pretended  that  there  was  a  defi- 
ciency, the  citizens  were  shipped  off  to  the  east  of  the 
Black  Sea,  and  the  island  was  occupied  by  colonists. 
The  man  who  had  managed  the  affair  of  Chios  was  sent 
to  play  the  same  game  at  Ephesus.  But  the  people  were 
on  their  guard,  slew  him,  and  raised  the  standard  of 
rebellion.  Trailes,  Hypaepa,  Metropolis,  Sardis,  Smyrna, 
and  other  towns  followed  their  example.  Mithridates 
tried  to  buoy  up  his  sinking  cause,  attracting  debtors  by 
the  remission  of  debts,  resident  aliens  by  the  gift  of  the 
citizenship  of  the  towns  which  they  inhabited,  and  slaves 
by  the  promise  of  freedom — devices  of  a  desperate  man. 
A  plot  was  laid  against  his  life  which  was  betrayed,  and 
in  his  fury  he  launched  out  into  yet  more  savage  excesses. 
He  sent  a  set  of  men  to  collect  depositions,  and  they 
slew  indiscriminately  those  who  were  denounced,  1600, 
it  is  said,  in  all. 

These   events  must  have  occurred  in  the  winter  of 

86-85  B.  c.,  when  Flaccus  was  on  his  march  from  the 

Adriatic  coast  through  Macedonia  and  Thrace  for  Asia. 

Flaccus  had  quarrelled  with  his  lieutenant 

rimbna  .  x 

mutinies  Fimbria,  and  superseded  him.     The  latter, 

murders3"  when  Flaccus  had  crossed  from  Byzantium 
Flaccus.  to  chalcedon,  induced  the  troops,  who 

hated  their  general,  to  mutiny.  Flaccus  returned  in 
haste;  but,  learning  what  had  happened,  fled  back  to 
Chalcedon  and  thence  to  Nicomedia.  Here  Fimbria, 
finding  him  hidden  in  a  well,  murdered  him,  and 
threw  his  head  into  the  sea.  Then,  attacking  the 
king's  son,  he  defeated  him  at  the  river  Rhyndacus, 


86-85  B.  c.       Sulla  in  Greece  and  Asia.  171 

and  pursued  the  king  himself  to  Pergamus        He  defeats 

the  son  of 

and    Pitane,  where  he  would    have  taken        Mithri- 
him  but  that  he  crossed  over  to  Mitylene,        pu^ueTfhe 
while  Fimbria  had    no   ships  and  was  thus        *ing- 
baulked  of  his  prey.     Another  event  had  happened  to 
aggravate  his  irritation.     Lucullus,  sent  by      Lucuiius 
Sulla  to  collect  a  fleet,  had,  as  has  been  re-      off  the 
lated  (p.  162),  failed  in  Egypt.     But  he  had      Asia  Minor, 
procured  ships  from  Syria  and  Rhodes,  in-      ommbSa 
duced  Cos  and  Cnidus  to  revolt,  and  driven       l*  him- 
out  the  Pontic  partisans  from  Chios  and  Colophon.     He 
was  now  in  the  neighbourhood,  when  Mithridates  was 
.  at  Pitane.    But  he  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  Fimbria's  request 
for  aid,    and   after  defeating  Neoptolemus,    the   king's 
admiral,   met  Sulla  in  the  Thracian    Chersonese,   and 
conveyed  him  across  to  Dardanus,  in  the  Troad,  where 
Mithridates  came  to  meet  him.     Each  had  . 

one  feeling  in  common  -  dread  lest  the  other        dates  meets 
should  make  terms  with  Fimbria;  and  the        they  com^ 
bargain  was  soon  struck  in  spite  of  Sulla's        to  terms- 
soldiers,  who  were  thus  after  all  baulked  of  the  long- 
looked-for  Asiatic   campaign  and   their   desire   to  take 
revenge  for  the  great  massacre.     But  Sulla,  as  we  have 
seen  (p.  162*,  got  some  money  to  quiet  them  ;  and  they 
were  in  his  power  in  Asia  almost  as  much  as  he  had 
been  in  theirs  at  Rome.     He  at  once  led  them  against 
Fimbria,  who  was  near  Thyadra,  in  Lydia.     He  sum- 
moned that  leader  to  hand  over  his  army,  and  the  sol- 
diers began  to  desert  him.     Fimbria  tried  to  force  them 
to  swear  obedience  to  him,  and  slew  the 
first  who  refused.     Then  he  sent  a  slave  to         JSdS^ 
assassinate  Sulla;  and  the  discovery  of  this         *?.  s"n.a- 

*  rimbna 

attempt  so  maddened  Sulla's  soldiers  that         commits 
Fimbria  dared  not  trust  even  Sulla's  pro- 


172  The  Gracchi,  Afarius,  and  Sulla.     CK.  xm. 

mised  safe-conduct  and  slew  himself.  Sulla  incorpo- 
rated his  troops  with  his  own  army,  and  proceeded  to 
regulate  the  affairs  of  Asia.  Those  towns  which  had  re- 
mained faithful  to  Rome  or  had  sided  with 
Sulla's  him  were  liberally  rewarded.  All  slaves 

who  refused  to  return  to  their  masters  were 
slain.  The  towns  that  resisted  were  punished  and  their 
walls  destroyed.  The  ringleaders  in  the  massacre  were 
put  to  death.  The  taxpayers  were  forced  to  pay  at  once 
the  previous  five  years'  arrears  and  a  fine  of  20,000 
talents  (4,88o,ooo/.),  and  Lucullus  was  left  to  collect  it. 
In  order  to  raise  this  sum  the  unhappy  Asiatics  were 
obliged  to  mortgage  their  public  buildings  to  the  Italian 
money-lenders ;  but  Sulla  got  the  whole  of  it,  and 
scarcely  was  he  gone  when  pirates,  hounded  on  by 
Mithridates,  came,  like  the  flocks  of  vultures,  to  devour 
what  the  eagles  had  left. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

SULLA   IN   ITALY. 

LEAVING  Murena  in  Asia  with  Fimbria's  legions, 
Sulla,  in  84  B.  c.f  with  his  soldiers  in  good  humour,  and 
Sulla  sets  .  with  ful1  conrers,  at  last  set  out  homewards. 

wardhs°me~  Three  days  after  sailinS  from  Ephesus  he 
reached  the  Piraeus.  Thence  he  wrote  to 

the  Senate  in  a  different  style  from  that  in  which  he  had 
communicated  his  victory  over  Fimbria, 

His  letter  to  ,          ,        i  . 

the  Senate.        when  he  had  not  mentioned  his  own  out- 
lawry.    He  now  recounted  all  that  he  had 
done,  and  contrasted  it  with  what  had  been  done  to  him 


84  B.  c.  Sulla  in  Italy.  1 73 

at  Rome,  how  his  house  had  been  destroyed,  his  friends 
murdered,  and  his  wife  and  children  forced  to  fly  for 
their  lives.  He  was  on  his  way,  he  said,  to  punish  his 
enemies  and  tho^e  who  had  wronged  him.  Other  men, 
including  the  newly-enfranchised  Italians,  need  be  un- 
der no  apprehension.  We  do  not  know  much  of  what 
had  been  going  on  at  Rome  beyond  what  has  been 
related  in  a  previous  chapter.  Cinna  and  Carbo,  the 
consuls,  were  making  what  preparations  they  could 
when  the  letter  arrived.  But  it  struck  a  cold  chill  of 
dread  into  many  of  the  Senate,  and  Cinna  and  Carbo 
were  told  to  desist  for  a  time,  while  an  embassy  was 
sent  to  Sulla  to  try  and  arrange  terms,  and  to  ask,  if  he 
wished  to  be  assured  of  his  own  safety,  what  were  his 
demands.  But  when  the  ambassadors  were  gone,  Cinna 
and  Carbo  proclaimed  themselves  consuls  for  83,  so 
that  they  might  not  have  to  come  back  to  Rome  to  hold 
the  elections ;  and  Cinna  was  soon  afterwards  mur- 
dered at  Ancona.  The  tribunes  then  compelled  Carbo 
to  come  back  and  hold  the  elections  in  the  regular  man- 
ner ;  and  Lucius  Cornelius  Scipio  Asiaticus  and  Caius 
Norbanus  were  elected. 

Meanwhile    the    ambassadors    had    found    Sulla    in 
Greece,  and  had  received  his  answer.     He  said  that  he 
would  never  be  reconciled  to  such  criminals 
as  his  enemies,  though  the  Romans  might,       Sulla's 

response  to 

if  they  chose ;  and   that,    as    for   his   own      an  embassy 

c  ^       i       ,      j  11.  i        from  Rome 

safety,  he  had  an  army  devoted  to  him,  and 
should  prefer  to  secure  the  safety  of  the  Senate  and  his 
own  adherents.  He  sent  back  with  the  ambassadors 
some  friends  to  represent  him  before  the  Senate,  and, 
embarking  his  army  at  the  Piraeus,  ordered  it  to  go 
round  the  coast  to  Patrae  in  Achaia,  and  thence  to  the 
shores  opposite  Brundisium.  He,  himself,  having  a  fit 


1 74         The  Gracchi^  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  xnr, 

of  gout,  went  to  Euboea,  to  try  the  springs  of  yEdepsus. 

One  day,  says  Plutarch,  while  he  was  walk- 
luuland  ing  on  the  shore  there,  some  fishermen 

fishermen          brought  him  some  fine  fish. ,   He  was  much 

pleased,  but  when  they  told  him  that  they 
were  citizens  of  Halae,  a  town  which  he  had  destroyed 
after  the  battle  of  Orchomenos,  he  said  in  his  grim  way, 
"  What !  is  there  a  man  of  Halae  still  alive  ?"  But  then 
he  told  the  men  to  take  heart,  for  the  fish  had  pleaded 
eloquently  for  them.  From  Eubcea  he  crossed  to  the 
mainland  to  join  his  troops.  They  were  about  40,000  iu 
number,  and  more  than  200,000  men  were,  he  said,  in 
arms  against  him  in  Italy.  But  Sulla,  who  had  connived 
at  their  mutinies,  their  vices,  and  their  breaches  of  dis- 
cipline, who  had  always  led  them  to  victory,  and  had 
never  yet  thrown  aside  that  mask  of  moderation  which 
veiled  an  inflexible  determination  to  be  revenged — Sulla 
who  had  been  so  long  the  sole  representative  of  autho- 
rity, and  to  whom  they  had  learned  to  look  for  their 

ultimate  reward,  was  their  hero  and  hope. 
sJSTa'R011  °f  They  offered  him  their  money,  and  of  their 
troops  to  own  accord  swore  not  to  disperse  or  to  ravage 

the  country.  Sulla  refused  their  money. 
Indeed  he  must  have  had  plenty  of  his  own.  But  now, 
when  slowly  and  still  very  cautiously  he  was  unfolding 
his  designs,  such  devotion  must  have  been  very  wel- 
come. 

Early  in  83  he  sailed  from  Dyrrhachium  to  Brundi- 
sium,  and  was  at  once  received  by  the  town.     He  was 

particularly   anxious   not   to   rouse   against 

Sulla  lands  at  J  .  . 

Brundisium,       himself  the  Italians,  with  whom  his  name 

was  anything  but  popular,  and  he  solemnly 

swore  to  respect  their  lately-acquired  rights.     Adherents 

soon  flocked  to  him.    Marcus  Licinius  Crassus  came  from 


83  B.  c.  Sulla  in  Italy.  175 

Africa,  and  was  sent  to  raise  troops  among 
the  Marsi.     He  asked  for  an  escort,  for  he          joined  by 
had  to  go  through    territory  occcupied   by 
the  enemy.     "  I  give  thee,"  said  Sulla  hotly,  "  thy  father, 
thy   brother,  thy  friends   and  thy  kinsmen,  who  were 
cut  off  by  violence  and  lawlessness,  and  whose  mur- 
derers I  am  now  hunting  down."     Quintus 
Metellus  Pius  came  from   Liguria,  whither      p?^6'611115 
he  had  escaped  from  Africa,  after  holding 
out  there  against   the   Marians   as   long   as   he  could. 

Quintus  Lucretius  Ofella    also   came,  soon         ,    _  „ 
by  Ulella ; 

to  find  to  his  cost  that  he  had  chosen  a 
master  who  could  as  readily  forget  as  accept  timely  ser- 
vice.   Most  welcome  of  all  was  Cneius  Pom- 
peius,   welcome    noc   only    for   his   talents,        ^y  Cn. 

J  Pompems  ; 

energy,  and  popularity,  but  because  he  did 
not  come  empty-handed.  He  had  taken  service  under 
Cinna,  but  had  been  looked  on  with  distrust,  and  an 
action  had  been  brought  against  him  to  make  him  sur- 
render plunder  which  his  father,  Cneius  Pompeius  Strabo, 
was  said  to  have  appropriated  when  he  took  Auximum, 
Carbo  had  pleaded  for  him,  and  he  had  been  acquitted. 
But,  as  soon  as  Sulla  was  gaining  ground  in  Italy,  he 
went  to  Picenum  where  he  had  estates,  and  expelled 
from  Auximum  the  adherents  of  Carbo,  and  then  pass- 
ing from  town  to  town  won  them  one  by  one  from  his 
late*  protector's  interests,  and  got  together  a  corps  of 
three  legions  with  all  the  proper  equipment  and  muni- 
tions of  war.  Three  officers  were  sent  against  him  at 
the  head  of  three  divisions ;  but  they  quarrelled,  and 
Pompeius,  who  is  said  to  have  slain  with  his  own  hand 
the  strongest  horseman  in  the  enemy's  ranks,  defeated 
one  of  them  and  effected  a  junction  with  Sulla  some- 
where in  Apulia.  Sulla's  soldierly  eye  was  pleased 


176  The  Gracchi,  Mar  in  s,  and  Sulla.     CH.  xm. 

at  the  sight  of  troops  thus  successful,  and  in  good  mar- 
tial trim ;  and  when  Pompeius  addressed  him  as  Impe- 
rator,  he  hailed  him  by  the  same  title  in  return.     Or, 
perhaps,  he  was  only  playing  on  the  youth's  vanity,  for 
Pompeius,  who  was  for  his  courage  and  good  looks  the 
darling  of  the  soldiers  and  the  women,  was  very  vain, 
and  flattery  was  a  potion  which  it  seems  to  have  been 
one  of  Sulla's  cynical  maxims  always  to  administer  in 
strong  doses.    Later  he  was  joined  by  Philip- 
pus,  the  foe  of  Drusus,  who  for  shifty  and 
successful  knavery  seems  to  have  been   another  Mar- 
cus Scaurus  ;   by  Cethegus,  who  had  been 
byCethegus;     Qne  of  his   bitterest   enemies,   which   to   a 

man  of  Sulla's  business-like  disposition  would  not  be  an 
objection,  so  long  as  he  could  make  himself  useful  at 
the  time  ;  and  by  Caius  Verres,  a  late  quaes- 
by  Verres.  tor  ^  Carbo,  who  had  embezzled  the  public 
money  in  that  capacity,  and  thus  began  by  tergiversa- 
tion and  theft  a  notorious  career. 

Sulla  marched  northwards  through  Apulia,  gaining 
friends  by  committing  no  devastation,  and  sending  pro- 
posals of  peace  to  the  consul  Norbanus,  which  were  as 
hypocritical  as  was  his  abstinence  from  ravaging  the 
country.  He  meant  to  deal  with  these  Samnites  through 
whose  country  he  was  marching  at  some  other  time. 
At  present  it  was  most  politic  not  to  provoke  them.  Ac- 
cording to  Appian,  he  met  the  consul  at  Canusium,  on  the 
Aufidus.  But  it  is  probable  that  this  is  a  mistake,  and 
Battle  f  that  the  first  battle  was  fought  at  Mount  Tifata, 

Mount  a  spur  of  the  Apennines,  near  Capua.    Nor- 

De  «u  of  banus  had  seized  Sulla's  envoys,  and  this  so 

Noroanus.  enraged  the  soldiers  of  the  latter  that  they 
charged  down  the  hill  with  irresistible  impetuosity,  and 
killed  6000  of  the  foe.  Norbanus  fled  to  Capua.  Only 


CH.  xiii.  Sulla  in  Italy.  177 

seventy  of  the  Sullans  were  killed.  Sulla  now  crossed 
the  Volturnus,  and  marching  along  the  Appian  Road  met 
the  other  consul,  Scipio,  at  Teanum,  with  whom  he  opened 
negotiations.  Scipio  sent  Sertorius  to  Norbanus,  who 
was  blockaded  in  Capua,  to  consult  him  on  the  terms 
proposed.  Sertorius,  who  had  guessed  what  was  coming 
and  hoped  to  prevent  it  by  something  more  efficacious 
than  the  advice  of  Norbanus,  went  out  of  his  way  and 
seized  Suessa.  This  would  interrupt  Sulla's  immediate 
communications  with  the  sea,  of  which  he  was  master. 
Sulla  complained  ;  but  all  the  while  he  was,  as  Sertorius 
had  warned  Scipio,  corrupting  the  consul's  troops.  They 
murmured  when  Scipio  returned  the  hostages  which 
Sulla  had  given  ;  and,  when  the  latter  on 
their  invitation  approached  their  lines,  they  fi-oops* 
went  over  to  him  in  a  body.  On  hearing  of  Suffa1 1° 
this  Carbo  said,  that  in  contending  with 
Sulla,  he  had  to  contend  with  a  lion  and  a  fox,  and  that 
the  fox  gave  him  most  trouble. 

It  may  be  noted  here  that  Sulla,  whose  calculated 
moderation  was  paying  him  well — the  more  pleasantly 
because  he  knew  that  he  could  wreak  his  revenge  after- 
wards at  his  leisure — never  scrupled  to  employ  every 
kind  of  subterfuge  and  lie.  He  tricked  and  lied  on  his 
march  to  Rome  in  88.  He  lied  foully  to  the  Samnites 
after  the  battle  of  the  Colline  Gate.  And  he  lied  in  his 
Memoirs,  when  he  said  that  he  only  lost  four  men  at 
Chasroneia,  and  twenty-three  at  Sacriportus, 
where  he  also  said  that  he  killed  20,000  of  Sulla's 

mendacity. 

the  foe.     Absurd  assertions  like  these  may 
have  been  dictated  as  a  sort  of  lavish  acknowledgment 
paid  to  fortune,  of  whom  he  liked  to  be  thought  the  fa- 
vourite— lies  that  no  one  believed  or  was  expected  to  be- 
lieve, but  keeping  up  a  fiction  of  which  it  was  his  foible 

N 


178  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.    CH.  xin. 

to  be  proud.  Another  thing  we  may  note  is,  that  this  wars 

only  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  treasons  to  which,  as 

much   almost   as  to   his   own   generalship, 

?ue  greaUy          Sulla  Owed  his  final    SUCCCSS.       Five    Cohorts 

todeser-  deserted  at  Sacriportus.      Five  more  went 

tions. 

over  from  Carbo  to  Metellus.  Two  hundred 
and  seventy  cavalry  went  over  from  Carbo  to  Sulla  in 
Etruria.  A  whole  legion,  despatched  by  Carbo  to  relieve 
Prseneste,  joined  Pompeius.  At  the  battle  of  Faventia 
6000  deserted,  and  a  Lucanian  legion  did  the  same  di- 
rectly afterwards.  Naples  and  Narbo  were  both  handed 
over  by  treachery.  We  hear  also  of  commanders  desert- 
ing. On  the  other  hand,  nothing  is  said  of  anyone 
deserting  from  Sulla,  so  that  from  the  very  beginning 
the  contest  could  never  have  been  really  considered 
doubtful. 

After  this  signal  success   at  Teanum  Sertorius  was 
sent  to  Spain,  either  because,  as  is  likely,  he  made  bitter 

comments  on  the  consul's  incompetence,  or 
Sertorius  because  it  was  important  to  hold  Spain  as  a 

sent  to 

Spnin.  No  place  for  retreat.  Carbo  hastened  to  Rome, 
^an  left  to  and  at  his  instigation  the  Senate  outlawed 
sXse  a11  the  senators  who  had  joined  Sulla— a 

suicidal  step,  which  would  contrast  fatally 
with  Sulla's  crafty  moderation.  It  was  about  this  time 

that  the  Capitol,  and  in  it  the  Sibylline 
thVcrfitof.  books,  were  burnt.  Some  people  said  that 

Carbo  burnt  it,  though  what  his  motive 
could  be  is  difficult  to  conjecture.  Sulla  very  likely  re- 
gretted the  loss  of  the  Sibylline  books  as  much  as  any 

man.     With  this  the  first  year  of  the  civil 

Sulla  s  situ- 
ation at  the       war  ended.     Sulla  was  master  of  Picenum, 

83°B?c.  Apulia,  and  Campania  ;  had  disposed  of  two 

consuls  and  their  armies ;  and  had,  by  con- 


CH.  xin.  Sulla  in  Italy.  179 

ciliation  and  swearing  to  respect  their  rights,  made 
friends  of  some  of  the  newly-enfranchised  Italian 
towns. 

The  consuls  for  the  next  year  (82)  were  Carbo  and 
young  Marius.  The  Marian  governor  in  Africa  was  sus- 
pected of  wishing  to  raise  the  slaves  and  to  make  him- 
self absolute  in  the  province.  Consequently  the  Roman 
merchants  stirred  up  a  tumult,  in  which  he  was  burnt 
in  his  house.  In  Sardinia  the  renegade  Philippus  did 
some  service  by  defeating  the  Marian  praetor,  and  so 
securing  for  Sulla  the  corn  supply  of  the  islands.  In  the 
spring  Sulla  seized  Setia,  a  strong  position  on  the  west 
of  the  Volscian  Mountains.  Marius  was  in  the  same 
neighbourhood,  and  he  retreated  to  Sacriportus  on  the 
east  of  the  same  range.  Sulla  followed  him, 
his  aim  being  to  get  to  Rome.  A  battle  f^npo/tus 
took  place  at  Sacriportus.  •  Marius  was  get- 
ting the  worst  of  it  on  the  left  wing,  when  five  cohorts  and 
two  companies  of  cavalry  deserted  him.  The  rest  fled 
with  great  slaughter,  and  Sulla  pressed  so  hard  on  them 
that  the  gates  of  Prasneste  were  shut,  to  hinder  him  get- 
ting in  with  the  fugitives.  Marius  was  thus  left  outside, 
and,  like  Archelaus  at  Piraeus,  had  to  be 

Sulla  wins 

hoisted  over  the  wails  by  ropes.     Sulla  cap-         the  battle 
tured  8000  Samnites  in  the  battle,  and  now,         silgeSe 
for  the  first  time,  when  the  road  to  Rome 
was  opened  and  victory  seemed  secure,  showed  himself 
in  his  true  colors,  and  slew  all  of  them  to  a  man.     An 
equally  savage  butchery  had  been  going  on  in   Rome, 
where  Marius,  before  he  was  blockaded  in  Praeneste, 
had  given  orders  to  massacre  the  leaders  of  the  opposite 
faction.     The  Senate  was  assembled  as  if  to  despatch 
business  in  the  Curia  Hostilia,  and  there  Carbo's  cou- 
sin  and    the   father-in-law  of  Pompeius  were   assassi- 


180  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.     CH.  xm 

Massacre  at  natec*.  Tne  wife  °f  l^e  latter  killed  herself 
Rome  by  on  hearing  the  news.  Quintus  Mucius  Scae- 

young°  vola,  the  chief  pontiff,  and  the  first  jurist  who 

Maims.  attempted  to  systematize  Roman  law,  fled  to 

the  temple  of  Vesta,  and  was  there  slain.  The  corpses 
of  those  who  had  been  killed  were  thrown  into  the 
Tiber,  and  Marius  had  the  ferocious  satisfaction  of  feei- 
ing  that  his  enemies  would  not  be  able  to  exult  over  his 

own  imminent  ruin.  Sulla,  leaving  Ofella  to 
R^rne00"165  l°  blockade  Pneneste,  hastened  to  Rome,  but 

there  was  no  one  on  whom  to  take  ven- 
geance, for  his  foes  had  fled.  He  confiscated  their 
property,  and  tried  to  quiet  apprehensions  by  telling  the 
people  that  he  would  soon  re-establish  the  State.  But 
he  could  not  stay  long  in  the  city,  for  matters  looked 
threatening  in  the  north. 

In  this  quarter  the  contest  was  more  stubborn,  because 
the  newly  enfranchised  towns  were  stronger  partisans  of 

Marius.     Metellus   had    fought  a  battle   on 

Metellus  and 

in  the      the   yEsis,   the   frontier    river   of    Picenum 


north.  ,      ~  c    ~,      ,  T 

against  Carrmas,  one  of  Carbo  s  lieuten- 
ants, and  after  a  hard  fight  had  beaten  him  and  occu- 
cupied  the  adjacent  country.  This  brought  Carbo 
against  him  with  a  superior  army,  and  Metellus  could 
do  nothing  till  the  news  of  Sacriportus  frightened  Carbo 
into  retreating  to  Ariminum,  that  he  might  secure  his 
communications  and  get  supplies  from  the  rich  valley 
of  the  Po.  Metellus  immediately  resumed  the  offensive. 
He  defeated  in  person  one  division  of  Carbo,  five  of 
whose  cohorts  deserted  in  the  battle.  His  lieutenant, 
Pompeius,  defeated  Censorinus  at  Sena  and  sacked  the 
town.  Pompeius  is  also  said  to  have  crossed  the  Po  and 
taken  Mediolanum  (Milan),  where  his  soldiers  massa- 
cred the  Senate.  Meteilus,  meanwhile,  had  gone  by  sea 


82  B.  c.  Sulla  in  Italy.  181 

along  the  east  coast  north  of  Ariminum,  and  had  thua 
cut  off  Carbo's  communications  with  the  valley  of  the 
Po.  This  drove  Carbo  from  his  position,  and  he 
marched  into  Etruria,  where  he  fought  a  battle  near 
Clusium  with  Sulla,  who  had  just  arrived  from  Rome. 
In  a  cavalry  fight  near  the  Clanis,  270  of  Carbo's  Span- 
ish horse  went  over  to  Sulla,  and  Carbo  killed  the  rest. 
There  was  another  fight  at  Saturnia,  on  the  Albegna, 
and  there,  too,  Sulla  was  victorious.  He  was  less  fortU' 
nate  in  a  general  engagement  near  Clusium, 
which  after  a  whole  day's  fighting  ended  indecisive 

*  Combats. 

indecisively.  Carbo  was,  however,  now 
reduced  to  great  straits.  Carrinas  was  defeated  by 
Pompeius  and  Crassus  near  Spoletum,  and  retired  into 
the  town.  Carbo  sent  a  detachment  to  his  aid ;  but  it 
was  cut  to  pieces  by  an  ambuscade  laid  by  Sulla.  Bad 
news,  too,  reached  him  from  the  south,  where  Marius 
was  beginning  to  starve  in  Praeneste.  He 

sent  a  strong  force  of  eight  legions  to  raise         Carbo  at- 
tempts  to 
the  siege  ;  but  Pompeius  waylaid  and  routed         relieve 

them,  and  surrounded  their  officer  who  had 
retreated  to  a  hill.  But  the  latter,  leaving  his  fires 
alight,  marched  off  by  night,  and  returned  to  Carbo  with 
only  seven  cohorts ;  for  his  troops  had  mutinied,  one 
legion  going  off  to  Ariminum,  and  many  men  dispersing 
to  their  homes.  A  second  attempt  to  re- 

*  A  second 

lieve    Praeneste   was    now   made   from   the        a  tempt 
south      Lamponius  from  Lucania,  whom  we 
last  heard  of  in  the  Social  war  (126),  and  Pontius  Tele- 
sinus  from  Samnium,  marched  at  the  head  of  70,00x3 
men   into   Latium.     This   movement   drew   Sulla   from 
Etruria.     He   threw   himself   between    Rome   and   the 
enemy,  and  occupied  a  gorge  through  which  they  had 
to  pass  before  they  could  get  to  Praeneste.     The  Latin 


1 82          The  Gracchi^  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  xin. 

Road   branches    off  near  Anagnia,  one  route   leading 
straight  to  Rome,  the  other  making  a  detour 

The  dead 

lock  at  through  Praeneste.     It  was  somewhere  here 

that  Sulla  took  his  stand;  and  neither 
could  the  southern  army  break  through  his  lines,  nor 
Marius  break  through  those  of  Ofella,  though  he  made 
determined  efforts  to  do  so. 

Meanwhile  Carbo  and  Norbanus,  released  from  the 
pressure  of  Sulla's  army,  struck  across  the  Apennines  to 
overwhelm  Metellus  ;  but  their  imprudence  ruined  them. 
Coming  on  Metellus  at  Faventia  (Faenza)  when  their 
troops  were  weary  after  a  day's  march,  they  attacked 
him  in  the  evening,  hoping  to  surprise  him. 

Overthrow  of 

Carbo  by  But    the   tired   men   were  defeated.      Ten 

thousand  were  killed ;  6,000  surrendered  or 
deserted.  The  rest  fled,  and  only  1,000  effected  an 
orderly  retreat  to  Arretium.  Nor  did  the  disaster  end 
here.  A  Lucanian  legion,  coming  to  join  Carbo,  de- 
serted to  Metellus  on  hearing  the  result  of  the  battle,  and 
the  commander  sent  to  offer  his  submission  to  Sulla. 
Sulla  characteristically  replied  that  he  must  earn  his 
pardon,  and  the  other,  nothing  loath,  asked  Norbanus 
and  his  officers  to  a  banquet  and  murdered  all  who 
came.  Norbanus  refused  the  invitation  and  escaped  to 
Rhodes ;  but  when  Sulla  sent  to  demand  that  he  should 
be  given  up  he  committed  suicide  Carbo  had  still 
more  than  30,000  men  at  Clusium,  and  he 
t^mpt  ?o~  made  a  third  attempt  to  relieve  Praeneste  by 
Praeneste  sending  Damasippus  with  two  legions  to  co- 

operate from  the  north  with  the  Samnites  on 
the  south.  But  Sulla  found  means  to  hold  them  in 
check,  and  Carbo,  on  the  news  of  other  disasters — at 
Fidentia,  where  Marcus  Lucullus  defeated  one  of  his 
lieutenants,  and  at  Tuder,  which  Marcus  Crassus  took 


82  B,  c.  Sulla  in  Italy.  183 

and  pillaged — lost  heart  and  fled  to  Africa. 

Plutarch  says    that    Lucullus,  having    less         Carbo  flies 

3  '  to  Africa. 

than  a  third  of  the  numbers  of  the  enemy, 
was  in  doubt  whether  to  fight.  But  just  then  a  gentle 
breeze  blew  the  flowers  from  a  neighbouring  field,  which 
fell  on  the  shields  and  helmets  of  the  soldiers  in  such  a 
manner  that  they  seemed  to  be  crowned  with  garlands, 
and  this  so  cheered  them  that  they  won  an  easy  victory. 
After  Carbo's  flight  his  army  was  defeated  by  Pompeius 
near  Clusiuin.  The  rest  of  it,  under  Carrinas  and  Cen- 
sorinus,  joined  Damasippus,  and,  taking  up  a  position 
twelve  miles  from  Rome  in  the  Alban  terri- 
tory, threatened  the  capital,  and  forced  Heutenants 
Sulla  to  break  up  his  quarters,  where  he  threaten 

1  Rome. 

had   been   barring  the  roads  to   Praeneste 
and  Rome.     The  sequel  is  uncertain  ;  but  it  is  probable 
that  when  the  three  commanders  marched  into  Latium, 
Sulla  was  obliged  to  detach  cavalry  to  harass  them,  and 
soon  afterwards  to  march  with  all  his  forces 

Sulla   comes 

to  prevent  Rome  being  taken.     Why  Car-       to  the 
rinas  did  not  assault  Rome  at  once  as  he 
came   south,  we   cannot   say.      Probably   the   relief  of 
Praeneste  was  the  most  urgent  necessity,  and  he  hoped, 
after  setting  Marius  free,  to  overwhelm  Sulla  first,  then 
Pompeius,  and  then  to  take  Rome.     But,  if  these  were 
his  plans,  the  furious  impetuosity  of  the  Samnites  disar- 
ranged them.     Pontius,  as  soon  as  he  saw  Sulla's  troops 
weakened,  in  order  to  oppose  Carrinas,  forced  his  way 
by  night  along  the  Latin  Road,  gathered  up  the  troops 
of  Carrinas  on  the  march,  and  at  daybreak 
was  within  a  few  miles  of  Rome.     Sulla  in-         attempiTof 
stantly   followed,   but    by    the    Praenestine         T^csinus 
Road,   which  was   somewhat   longer ;    and 
when   he   got  to    Rome    about    midday,    fighting   had 


1 84  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  xin. 

already  taken  place,  and  the  Roman  cavalry  had  been 
beaten  under  the  walls  of  the  city. 

It  was  November  I,  B.C.  82.  Sunset  was  near  and 
Sulla's  men  were  weary,  but  he  was  determined  or  was 
compelled  to  fight.  Giving  his  men  some  hasty  refresh- 
ment, he  at  once  formed  the  line  of  battle  before  the 
Colline  Gate,  and  the  last  and  most  desperate  conflict  of 
the  civil  war  began.  Sulla's  left  wing  was 

Battle  of  .    .      .  . 

the  Colline  driven  back  to  the  city  walls,  and  fugitives 
brought  word  to  Ofella  at  Praeneste  that  the 
battle  was  lost.  Sulla  himself  was  nearly  slain.  He  was 
on  a  spirited  white  horse,  cheering  on  his  men.  Two 
javelins  were  hurled  at  him  at  once.  He  did  not  see 
them,  but  his  groom  did,  and  he  lashed  Sulla's  horse  so 
as  to  make  it  leap  forward,  and  the  javelins 
Suihfer  °f  grazed  its  tail  Sulla  wore  in  his  bosom  a 
small  golden  image  of  Apollo,  which  he 
brought  from  Delphi.  He  now  kissed  it  with  devotion, 
and  prayed  aloud  to  the  god  not  to  allow  him  to  fall  in- 
gloriously  by  the  hands  of  his  fellow-citizens,  after  lead- 
ing him  safe  through  so  many  perils  to  the  threshold  of 
the  city.  But  neither  courage  nor  superstition  availed 
him  against  the  fury  of  the  Samnite  onset.  For  the  first 
time  in  his  life  Sulla  was  beaten,  and  either  retreated 
into  Rome  or  maintained  a  desperate  struggle  close  to 
the  walls  during  the  night.  On  the  right  wing,  however, 
Crassus  had  gained  the  day,  had  chased  the  foe  to  An- 
temnae,  and  halting  there  sent  to  Sulla  for  a  supply  of 
food.  Thus  apprised  of  his  good  fortune,  he  hastened  to 
join  Crassus.  That  division  of  the  enemy  which  had 
beaten  him  had  doubtless  heard  the  same  news,  and 
must  have  dispersed  or  joined  the  rest  of  their  forces  at 
Antemnae.  But  in  any  case  they  were  full  of  despair. 
Three  thousand  offered  to  surrender.  But  Sulla  never 


82  B.  c.  Sulla  in  Italy.  185 

gave  mercy,  though  he  often  sold  it  for  an  explicit  or 
tacit  consideration.  He  swore  to  spare  them  if  they 
turned  on  their  comrades.  They  did  so,  and  Sulla, 
taking  them  to  Rome  with  four  or  five  thousand  other 
prisoners,  placed  them  in  the  Circus  Flaminius  and 
had  them  all  slain.  He  was  haranguing  the  Senate  in 
the  temple  of  Bellona,  and  the  cries  of  the  poor  wretches 
alarmed  his  audience  ;  but  he  told  them  to  attend  to 
what  he  was  saying,  for  the  noise  they  heard 

3  J  Sulla's  cold- 

Was  only  made  by  some  malefactors,  whom      blooded 

he  had  ordered  to  be  chastised.  This  last 
blind  rush  of  the  Sabellian  bull  on  the  lair  of  the  wolves, 
which  Pontius  had  told  his  followers  they  must  destroy, 
had  failed  only  by  a  hair  s  breadth,  and  since  the  days 
of  the  Gauls  Rome  had  never  been  in  such  peril  But 
now  at  last  Sulla  had  triumphed,  and  could  afford  to 
gratify  his  pent-up  passion  for  vengeance.  This  butchery 
in  the  Circus  was  but  the  beginning  of  what  he  meant  to 
do.  The  four  leaders,  Pontius,  Carrinas,  Damasippus, 
and  Censorinus,  were  all  beheaded  ;  and,  in 

.1  -i         i       r     -i  •          •  i  •    i       •  Executions. 

the  same  ghastly  fashion  in  which,  it  was 
said,  Hannibal  had  learnt  the  death  of  Hasdrubal,  so 
those  blockaded  in  Praeneste  learnt  the  fate  of  the 
relieving  army  and  their  own  fate  also  by  seeing  four 
heads  stuck  on  poles  outside  the  town  walls  They  were 
half  starving  and  could  resist  no  longer  Marius  and  a 
younger  brother  of  Pontius  killed  each  other  before  the 
surrender.  Ofella  sent  the  head  of  Marius  to  Sulla,  who 
had  it  fixed  up  before  the  Rostra,  and  jeered  at  it  in  his 
pitiless  fashion,  quoting  from  Aristophanes  the  line, 

"  You  should  have  worked  at  the  oar  before  trying  tc  handle  the  helm." 

Then  he  went  to  Praeneste,  and  made  all  the  inhabitants 
come  outside  and  lay  down  their  arms.  The  Roman 


1 86  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  xin. 

senators  who  had  been  in  the  place  had  been  already 
slain  by  Ofella.  Three  groups  were  made  of  the  rest, 
consisting  of  Samnites,  Romans,  and  Praenestines.  The 
Massacre  at  Romans,  the  women,  and  the  children  were 

spared.  All  the  others,  12,000  in  number, 
were  massacred,  and  Preeneste  was  given  over  to 
pillage. 

So  ruthless  an  example  provoked  a  desperate  resist- 
ance at  Norba.  It  was  betrayed  to  Lepidus  by  night ; 
but  the  citizens  stabbed  and  hung  themselves  or  each 

other,  and  some  locking  themselves  inside 
NorL°f  their  Bouses,  set  them  in  flames.  A  wind 

was  blowing  and  the  town  was  consumed. 
So  at  Norba  there  was  neither  pillage  nor  execution. 
Nola  was  not  taken  till  two  years  afterwards,  and  we 
have  seen  (p.  128)  what  became  of  Mutilus  on  its  sur- 
render. vEsernia,  the  last  Samnite  capital  in  the  Social 

War,  was  captured  in  the  same  year  (80), 
vengeance  and  Sulla  did  his  best  to  fulfil  his  threat  of 
in  Samnium.  extirpating  the  Samnite  name.  In  Etruria 
Populonium  held  out  longer,  and  in  Strabo's  time  was 
still  deserted — a  proof  of  the  punishment  which  it  re- 
ceived. Volaterrae  was  the  last  town  to  submit.  In  79 
its  garrison  surrendered,  on  condition  of  their  lives  being 
spared.-  But  the  soldiers  of  the  besieging  force  raised  a 
cry  of  treason  and  stoned  their  general,  and  a  troop  of 
cavalry  sent  from  Rome  cut  the  garrison  to  pieces. 

In  the  provinces  there  was  still  much  to  be  done. 
Pompeius  was  sent  to  Sicily,  and  on  his  arrival  Perperna, 

the  Marian  governor,  left  the  island.  Carbo 
Carb°f  had  come  over  from  Africa  to  Cossura,  and 

Pompeius          was  taken  and   brought   before  Pompeius. 

in  Sicily. 

Pompeius  condemned  the  man  who  had 
once  been  his  advocate,  and  sent  his  head  to  Sulla.  It 


en.  xin.  Sulla  in  Italy.  187 

is  said  that  Carbo  met  his  death  in  a  craven  way,  beg- 
ging for  a  respite.  Whether  this  is  true  or  not,  he  seems 
to  have  been  a  selfish  and  incapable  man.  But  if  it  be 
true  that  Pompeius,  while  he  had  Carbo's  companions 
instantly  slain,  purposely  spared  Carbo  himself  in  order 
to  have  the  satisfaction  of  trying  him,  he  was  less  to  be 
envied  than  the  man  he  tried.  He  divorced  his  wife  at 
this  time  in  order  to  marry  Sulla's  step-daughter,  who 
was  also  divorced  from  her  husband  for  the  purpose. 
From  Sicily  Pompeius  was  sent  to  Africa,  where  Lucius 
Domitius  Ahenobarbus  was  in  arms.  Crossing  over  with 
1 20  ships  and  800  transports  he  landed  some  of  his  troops 
at  Utica  and  some  at  Carthage. 

The  decay  of  discipline  in  the  Roman  armies  is  illus- 
trated by  an  incident  which  occurred  at  Carthage.     One 
soldier  found  some  treasure,  and  the  rest 
would  not  stir  for  several  days  till  thev  were         Decay  of 

disc  plme 

convinced  that  there  was  nothing  more  to  in  Roman 
be  found.  Pompeius  looked  on  and  laughed 
at  them.  Sulla's  way  of  treating  his  soldiers  was  already 
bearing  fruit,  and  was  one  of  the  worst  of  the  evils 
which  he  brought  on  Italy  ;  for  he  who  goes  about  scat- 
tering smiles  and  smooth  words  in  order  to  win  a  name 
for  good-nature  will  always  find  others  to  run  him  a 
race  in  such  meanness,  and  so  discipline  becomes  sub- 
verted and  states  are  ruined. 

Pompeius  found  Domitius  strongly  posted  behind  a 
ravine.  Taking  advantage  of  a  tempest,  he  crossed  it 
and  routed  the  enemy.  His  men  hailed  him  Imperator; 
but  he  said  he  would  not  take  the  title  till  they  had 
taken  the  camp.  The  camp  was  then  Domitius 
stormed  and  Domitius  slain.  Pompeius  ^Ohnenu°ebredbus 
also  captured  the  towns  held  by  the  parti-  and  slain  by 
sans  of  Domitius,  and  defeated  and  took  AfrTca!"5 


i88  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  xiil. 

prisoner  the  Marian  usurper  who  had  expelled 
Hiempsal,  King  of  Numidia  Hiempsal  was  restored 
and  his  rival  put  to  death.  On  returning  to  Utica 
Pompeius  found  a  message  from  Sulla,  telling  him  to 
disband  his  troops  except  one  legion  and  wait  till  his 
successor  came.  The  men  mutinied,  for  they  liked  Pom- 
peius, and  Sulla  was  told  that  Pompeius  was  in  rebellion. 
He  remarked  that  "  in  his  old  age  it  was  his  fate  to  fight 
with  boys," — a  saying  to  which  Pompeius's 
Vanity  of  speech,  "  that  more  men  worshipped  the 

.rompems. 

rising  than  the  setting  sun,"  may  have  been 
intended  as  a  rejoinder.  But  soon  he  was  relieved  by 
hearing  that  the  politic  Pompeius  had  appeased  the 
mutiny.  Sulla  had  the  art  of  yielding  with  a  good 
grace  when  it  was  necessary,  and,  seeing  how  popular 
Pompeius  was,  he  went  out  to  meet  him  on  his  return 
and  greeted  him  by  the  name  "  Magnus."  The  vain 
young  man  asked  for  a  triumph.  His  forty  days'  cam- 
paign had  indeed  been  brilliant ;  but  he  was  not  even 
a  praetor,  the  lowest  official  to  whom  a  triumph  was 
granted,  nor  a  senator,  but  only  an  eques.  Sulla  at  first 
was  astonished  at  the  request,  but  contemptuously  re- 
plied, "  Let  him  triumph  ;  let  him  have  his  triumph." 

The  other  officials  of  Sulla  gave  him  trouble,  One, 
Ofella,  stood  for  the  consulship  against  his  wishes,  and 
went  about  with  a  crowd  of  friends  in  the  Forum.  But 
with  a  man  like  Sulla  it  was  foolish  to  presume  on  past 

services.  He  had  no  notion  of  allowing 
o"e\?ahs?ain  street-riots  again,  and  sent  a  centurion  who 

cut  Ofella  down.  The  people  brought  the 
centurion  to  him,  demanding  justice.  Sulla  told  them 
the  man  had  done  what  he  ordered,  and  then  spoke  a 

grim  parable  to  them.  A  rustic,  he  said, 
paries.  was  so  bitten  by  lice  that  twice  he  took  of! 


CH.  xin.  Sulla  in  Italy.  189 

his  coat  and  shook  it.  But  as  they  went  on  biting 
him  he  burnt  it.  And  so  those  who  had  twice  been 
humbled  had  better  not  provoke  him  to  use  fire  the 
third  time-  The  other  officer  was  Murena,  who  had 
been  left  in  Asia.  He  raised  troops  besides  the  legions 
left  with  him,  forced  Miletus  and  other  „ 

Murena 

Asiatic  towns  to  supply  a  fleet,  and   then         provokes 

,     .  ,  the  second 

stirred  up  the  second  Mithndatic  war.     The         M  thn- 
Colchians    had    revolted,  and   Mithridates 
suspected    his    son    of    fostering    the    revolt    in    order 
to  be  set  over  them.     So   he  invited   him   to   come  to 
his    court,    put    him    there    in    chains    of    gold,    and 
soon   killed  him.      He  had  also,  it  seems,  threatened 
Archelaus,   who    fled    from    him    and     represented   to 
the   ready  ears   of  Murena,  that  Mithridates   still   held 
part  of  Cappadocia,  and  was  collecting  a  powerful  army. 
Murena  advanced  into  Cappadocia,  took  Comana,  and 
pillaged  its  temple.     Mithridates  appealed  to  the  treaty  ; 
but   Murena   asked   where   it   was,  for  the 
terms  had  never  been  reduced  to  a  written      dlteVap- 
form.     The  king  then  sent  to  the  Senate.      geals,  to  the 

Senate. 

Murena  crossed  the  Halys,  and  retired  into 

Phrygia  and  Galatia   with   rich   spoil.     Disregarding   a 

prohibition  of  the  Senate,  he  again  attacked  the  king, 

who  at  last  sent  Gordius  against  him,  and 

soon  after,  coming  up  in  person,  defeated  SefcSed 

Murena  twice  and  drove  him  into  Phrygia. 

For  this  success  Mithridates  lit  on  a  high  mountain  a 

bonfire,  which,  it  is  said,  was  seen  more  than  a  hundred 

miles   away  by   sailors  in   the    Black    Sea.     Sulla   sent 

orders   to    Murena  to   fight    no   more;  and 

Mithridates,  on  condition  of  being  reconciled         a  stop  to 

to  Ariobarzanes,  was  allowed  to  keep  as  much 

of  Cappadocia  as  was  in    his  possession.     He  gave   a 


190  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.      CH.  xin. 

great  banquet  in  honour  of  the  occasion  ;  and  Murena 
went  home,  where  he  had  a  triumph.  Sulla  probably 
granted  it  to  him  after  his  defeats  with  more  pleasure 
than  he  granted  it  to  Pompeius  for  his  victories. 

The  ablest  of  the  Marian  generals  was,  it  has  been 
seen,  virtually  unemployed  in  the  Civil  War.     Sertorius, 

when  sent  to  Spain,  seized  the  passes  of  the 
|eaiJrUS  in  Pyrenees.  Sulla,  in  81,  sent  against  him,  Q. 

Annius  Luscus,  who  found  one  of  the  lieu- 
tenants of  Sertorius  so  strongly  posted  that  he  could 
not  get  past  him.  However  this  lieutenant  was  assassi- 
nated by  one  of  his  own  men,  and  his  troops  abandoned 

their  position.  Sertorius  had  few  men,  and 
He  flies  to  flecj  to  ]Sfew  Carthaee,  and  thence  to  Maure- 

Mauretania. 

tania.     Here  he  was  attacked  by  the  barba- 
rians, and  re-embarking,  was  on  his  way  back  to  Spain, 
when  he  fell  in  with  some  Cilician  pirates 

At  Pityussa.         ^.^     whom     he     attacke(J      pftyussa     (Iviza) 

and  expelled  the  Roman  garrison.  Annius  hastened 
to  the  rescue  and  worsted  him  in  a  fight,  after  which 

Sertorius  sailed  away  through  the  Straits  of 

Gibraltar  to  Gades  (Cadiz).  Here  some  sail- 
ors told  him  of  two  islands  which  the  Spaniards  be- 
lieved to  be  the  Islands  of  the  Blest,  with  a  pleasant 
climate  and  a  fruitful  soil.  In  these  islands — probably 

Madeira — Sertorius  wished  to  settle.  But, 
unifaure"  when  his  Cilician  allies  sailed  to  Mauretania 

to  restore  some  prince  to  his  throne,  he  went 
there  too  and  fought  on  the  other  side.  Sulla  sent  help 
to  the  prince,  but  Sertorius  defeated  the  commander 

and  was  joined  by  the  troops.  Now,  when 
Spain*1  to  once  more  at  the  head  of  a  Roman  army, 

he  was  invited  to  Spain  by  the  Lusitani, 
who  were  preparing  to  revolt  against  Rome.  With  2,600 


CH.  xiv.    Personal  Rule  and  Death  of  Sulla.          191 

Romans  and  700  Africans  he  crossed  the  sea,  gaining  a 
victory  over  the  Roman  cruisers  on  his  way,  and  set  to 
work  organizing  and  drilling  the  Lusitani  in 
Roman  fashion.     One  of  them  gave  him  a         J*'5  white 

fawn. 

white  fawn,  and  Sertorius  declared  that  it  had 
been  given  him  by  Diana.  After  this,  when  he  obtained, 
any  secret  intelligence  he  said  that  the  fawn  had  told 
him,  and  brought  it  out  crowned  with  flowers,  if  it  was 
some  officer's  success  of  which  he  had  heard.  By  such 
means,  and  by  introducing  a  gay  and  martial  uniform 
among  his  troops,  he  made  his  army  both  well-disciplined 
and  devoted  to  him  personally,  and  defeated  one  gover- 
nor of  Further  Spain  on  the  Baetis  (Guadalquiver). 
Gaining  afterwards  a  series  of  successes 
over  Q.  Metellus  Pius,  who  had  been  sent  Meteiiu* 

against  him, he  was  still  in  arms  and  master 
of  a.  considerable  part  of  Spain  when  Sulla  died. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  PERSONAL   RULE  AND   DEATH   OF  SULLA. 

SULLA  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  king  in  Rome. 
He  harangued  the  people  on  what  he  had  achieved,  and 
told  them  that  if  they  were  obedient  he  would  make 
things  better  for  them,  but  that  he  would  not  spare  his 
enemies,  and  would  punish  everyone  who  had  sided 
with  them  since  Scipio  violated  his  covenant. 

.  -  x,  ,       ,.  ,  Reign  of 

Then  began  a  reign  of  terror.     Not  only  did  terror  in 

he  kill  his  enemies,  but  gave   over  to  his 
creatures  men  against  whom  he  had  no  complaint  to 
make.     At  last   a  young  noble,  Caius  Metellus,   asked 


1 92  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  xiv. 

him  in  the  Senate,  "  Tell  us,  Sulla,  when  there  is  to  be 
an  end  of  our  calamities.  We  do  not  ask  thee  to  spare 
those  whom  thou  hast  marked  out  for  punishment,  but 
to  relieve  the  suspense  of  those  whom  thou  hast  deter- 
mined to  save."  Sulla  replied  that  he  did  not  yet  know. 
"Then,"  said  Metellus,  "let  us  know  whom  thou  intend- 
est  to  destroy."  Sulla  answered  by  issuine 

Sulla's  J  J 

proscrip-  a   first    proscription    list,    including   eighty 

names.  People  murmured  at  the  illegality 
of  this,  and  in  two  days,  as  if  to  rebuke  their  presumption, 
he  issued  a  second  of  220,  and  as  many  more  the  next 
day.  Then  he  told  the  people  from  the  rostrum  that  he 
had  now  proscribed  all  that  he  remembered,  and  those 
whom  he  had  forgotten  must  come  into  some  future  pro- 
scription. Such  a  speech  would  seem  incredible  if  put 
into  the  mouth  of  any  other  character  in  history  ;  but  it 
is  in  keeping  with  Sulla's  passionless  and  nonchalant 
brutality.  The  ashes  of  Marius  he  ordered  to  be  dug  up 
and  scattered  in  the  Anio,  the  only  unpractical  act  we 
ever  read  of  him  committing.  Death  was  ordained  for 
every  one  who  should  harbour  or  save  a  proscribed 
person,  even  his  own  brother,  son,  or  parent.  But  he 
who  killed  a  proscribed  man,  even  if  it  was  a  slave  who 
slew  his  master  or  a  son  his  father,  was  to  receive  two 
talents.  Even  the  son  and  grandson  of  those  proscribed 
were  deprived  of  the  privileges  of  citizenship,  and  their 
property  was  confiscated.  Not  only  in  Rome  but  in  all 
the  cities  of  Italy  this  went  on.  Lists  were  posted  every- 
where, and  it  was  a  common  saying  among  the  ruffianly 
executioners,  "  His  fine  home  was  the  death  of  such  an 
one,  his  gardens  of  another,  his  hot  baths  of  a  third," 
for  they  hunted  down  men  for  their  wealth  more  than 
ptorv  from  revenge.  One  day  a  quiet  citizen  came 

illustrative         j^o  the  Forum,  and  out  of  mere  curiosity 

of  the  time.  ' 


CH.  xiv.     Personal  Rule  and  Death  of  Sulla.        19? 

read  the  proscription  list.  To  his  horror  he  saw  his 
own  name.  "Wretch,"  he  cried,  "that  1  am,  my 
Alban  villa  pursues  me  !  "  and  he  had  not  gone  far 
when  a  ruffian  came  up  and  killed  him. 

Sulla  and 

The  famous  Julius  Caesar  was  one  of  those  Julius 

in  danger.     He  would  not  divorce  his  wife 
at  the  bidding  of  Sulla,  who  confiscated  her  property  if 
not  his  as  well,  being  so  far  merciful  for  some  reason 
which  we  do  not  know.  One  case  has  been  made  memo- 
rable by  the  fact  that  Cicero  was  the  counsel  for  one  of 
the   sufferers.     Two   men    named    Roscius 
procured  the  assassination  of  a  third  of  the  £tory  of 

Roscms. 

same  name  by  Sulla's  favourite  freedman, 
Chrysogonus,  who  then  got  the  name  of  Roscius  put  on 
the  proscription  list,  and,  seizing  on  his  property, 
expelled  the  man's  son  from  it.  He  having  friends  at 
Rome  fled  to  them,  and  made  the  assassins  fear  that 
they  might  be  compelled  to  disgorge.  So  they  suddenly 
charged  the  son  with  having  killed  his  father.  The 
most  frightful  circumstance  about  the  case  is  not  the 
piteous  injustice  suffered  by  the  son,  but  the  abject  way 
in  which  Cicero  speaks  of  Sulla,  comparing  him  to  Jupi- 
ter who,  despite  his  universal  beneficence,  sometimes 
permits  destruction,  not  on  purpose  but  because  his 
sway  is  so  world-wide,  and  scouting  the  idea  of  its  being 
possible  for  him  to  share  personally  in  such  wrongs.  It 
has  been  well  said,  "We  almost  touch  the  tyrant  with 
our  finger.'1  Cicero  soon  afterwards  left  Rome,  proba- 
bly from  fear  of  Sulla. 

It  is  said  that  the  names  of  4,700  persons  were  entered 
on  the  public  records  as  having  fallen  in  the  proscrip- 
tions, besides  many  more  who  were  assassi-        wholesale 
nated   for   private   reasons.     Whole   towns        punishment 

of  towns. 

were  put  up  for  auction,  says  one  writer, 
O 


194          The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  xiv. 

such  as  Spoletum,  Praeneste,  Interamna,  and  Florentia. 
by  this  we  may  understand  that  they  lost  all  their  land, 
their  privileges,  and  public  buildings,  perhaps  even  the 
houses  themselves.  Others,  such  as  Volaterras  and  Ar- 
retium,  were  deprived  of  all  privileges  except  that  of 
Commercium  or  the  right  of  trade. 

Sulla's  friends  attended  such  auctions  and  made  large 
fortunes.  One  of  his  centurions,  named  Luscius,  bought 
an  estate  for  10,000,000  sesterces,  or  88.54O/.  of  English 
money.  One  of  his  freedmen  bought  for  2O/.  I2s.  an 
estate  worth  6i,ooo/.  Crassus,  Verres,  and  Sulla's  wife, 
Metella,  became  in  this  way  infamously  rich.  In  spite 
of  such  nominal  prices,  the  sale  of  confiscated  estates 
produced  350,000,000  sesterces,  or  nearly  3,ooo,ooo/.  of 
English  money.  Sulla  approved  of  such  purchases,  for 
they  bound  the  buyers  to  his  interests,  and  ensured  their 
wishing  to  uphold  his  acts  after  his  death.  With  the 
same  view  of  creating  a  permanent  Sullan 
rewards  his  Party  m  Italy,  and  at  the  same  time  to  fulfil 
esSblishe^t  his  Pledges  to  the  soldiers,  he  allotted  to 
permanent  them  all  public  lands  in  Italy  hitherto  un- 
distributed, and  all  confiscated  land  not 
otherwise  disposed  of.  In  this  way  he  punished  and  re- 
warded at  a  stroke.  No  fewer  than  120,000  allotments 
were  made  and  twenty-three  legions  provided  for. 
There  was  in  it  a  plausible  mimicry  of  the  democratic 
scheme  of  colonies  which  Sulla  must  have  thoroughly 
enjoyed.  Thus  in  Italy  he  provided  a  standing  army  to 
support  his  new  constitution.  In  Rome  itself,  by  enfran- 
chising 10,000  slaves  whose  owners  had  been  slain,  he 
formed  a  strong  body  of  partisans  ever  ready 
Cornelii  to  ^°  ^s  bidding ;  these  were  all  named 

Cornelii.      A   man   is   known    by  his    ad- 
herents, and  the  worst  men  were  Sulla's  proteges. 


CH.  xiv.     Personal  Rule  and  Death  of  Sulla.        195 

Catiline's  name  rose  into  notoriety  amid  these  horrors. 
He  was  said  not  only  to  have  murdered  his  own  brother, 
but,  to  requite  Sulla  for  legalizing  the  mur- 
der by  including  this  brother's  name  in  the  • 
list  of  the  proscribed,  to  have  committed  the  most  hor- 
rible act  of  the  Civil  War — the  torture  of  Marcus  Marius 
Gratidianus.  This  man,  because  he  was  cousin  of  Marius, 
was  offered  up  as  a  victim  to  the  manes  of  Catulus,  of 
whom  the  elder  Marius  had  said,  "  He  must  die."  This 
poor  wretch  was  scourged,  had  his  limbs  broken,  his 
nose  and  hands  cut  off,  and  his  eyes  gouged  out  of  their 
sockets.  Finally  his  head  was  cut  off,  and  Cicero's 
brother  writes  that  Catiline  carried  it  in  his  hands 
streaming  with  blood.  But  no  one  would  attach  much 
importance  to  what  the  Ciceros  said  of  Catiline,  and  two 
circumstances  combine  to  point  to  his  innocence  of  such 
extreme  enormities.  One  is  that  it  was  the  son  of  Catulus 
who  begged  as  a  boon  from  Sulla  the  death  of  this 
Marius,  and  his  name  was  very  likely  confused  with 
Catiline's  in  the  street  rumours  of  the  time;  and  the 
other  and  more  direct  piece  of  evidence  is,  that  Catiline 
was  tried  in  the  year  64  for  murders  committed  at  this 
time,  and  was  acquitted.  It  is  a  curious  thing  that  the 
obloquy  which  has  clung  to  Catiline's  name  on  such 
dubious  reports  has  never  attached  in  the  same  measure 
to  the  undoubted  horrors  and  abominations  of  Sulla's 
career. 

Sulla,  though  he  meant  above  all  to  have  his  own 
way,  had  no  objection  to  use  constitutional  forms  where 
they  could  be  conveniently  employed.  He  made  the 
Senate  pass  a  resolution  approving  his  acts,  and,  as 
there  were  no  consuls  in'  82,  after  the  death  of  Marius 
and  Carbo,  he  retired  from  Rome  for  a  while  and  told 
the  Senate  to  elect  an  Interrex,  in  conformity  with  the 


196  Th'  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  xiv. 

prescribed  usage  under  such  circumstances.  Then  he 
wrote  to  the  Interrex  and  recommended  that  a  Dictator 
should  be  appointed,  not  for  a  limited  time,  but  till  he 
had  restored  quiet  in  the  Roman  world,  and,  with  a 
touch  of  that  irony  which  he  could  not  resist  displaying 
in  and  out  of  season,  went  on  to  say  that  he  thought 
himself  the  best  man  for  the  post.  Thus,  in  Novem- 
ber 82,  he  was  formally  invested  with  despotic  power 

over  the  lives  and  property  of  his  fellow- 
power5  citizens,  could  contract  or  extend  the 

frontiers  of  the  State,  could  change  as 
he  pleased  the  constitution  of  the  Italian  towns  and 
the  provinces,  could  legislate  for  the  future,  could  nomi- 
nate proconsuls  and  propraetors,  and  could  retain  his 
absolute  power  as  long  as  he  liked.  He  might  have 
dispensed  with  consuls  altogether.  But  he  did  not 
care  to  do  this.  The  consuls  whom  he  allowed  to  be 
elected  for  81  were  of  course  possessed  of  merely  nomi- 
nal power.  Twenty-four  lictors  preceded  him  in  the 
streets.  He  told  the  people  to  hail  him  as  "Felix,"  de- 
clared that  his  least  deliberate  were  his  most  successful 
actions,  signed  himself  "  Epaphroditus  "  when  he  wrote 
to  Greeks,  named  his  son  and  daughter  Faustus  and 
Fausta,  boasted  that  the  gods  held  converse  with  him 
in  dreams,  and  sent  a  golden  crown  and  axe  to  the  god- 
dess whom  he  believed  to  be  his  patroness.  Like  Wal- 
lenstein,  he  mingled  indifference  to  bloodshed  with 
extreme  superstition  and  boundless  self-confidence. 
But,  as  the  historian  remarks,  "  a  man  who  is  supersti- 
tious is  capable  of  any  crime,  for  he  believes  that  his 
gods  can  be  conciliated  by  prayers  and  presents.  The 
greatest  crimes  have  not  been  committed  by  men  who 
have  no  religious  belief."  No  doubt  to  his  mind  there 
was  a  sort  of  judicial  retribution  in  all  this  bloodshed; 


CH.  xiv.     Personal  Rule  and  Death  of  Sulla.         197 

and,  as  he  tried  to  make  himself  out  the  favourite  of  the 
gods,  so  by  formally  announcing  the  close  of  the  pro- 
scription lists  for  June  I,  81  B.  c.,  he  spread  some  veil 
of  legality  over  his  shameless  violence.     Tlu  re  is  some- 
thing  particularly  revolting   in   the    business-like   and 
systematic  way  in  which  he  went  about  his 
murderous  work,  appointing   a   fixed  time     j^Mble^ 
for  it  to  end,  a  fixed  list  of  the  victims,  a     nature  of 

r       j        •        L     i  •  i  t         i         r        i  Sulla's  acts. 

fixed  price  to  be  paid  per  head,  a  fixed  ex- 
emption for  the  murderers  from  his  own  law  "  De 
Sicariis."  Modern  idolaters  of  a  policy  of  blood  and 
iron  may  profane  history  by  their  glorification  of  human 
monsters;  but  no  sophistry  can  blind  an  independent 
reader  to  the  real  nature  of  Sulla's  character  and  acts. 
He  organized  murder,  and  filled  Italy  with  idle  soldiers 
instead  of  honest  husbandmen.  He  did  so  in  the  inte- 
rests of  a  class — a  class  whose  incapacity  for  government 
he  had  discovered  ;  and  yet,  knowing  that  his  re-estab- 
lishment of  this  class  could  only  be  temporary,  he  forti- 
fied it  by  every  means  in  his  power,  and  then,  after  a 
theatrical  finale,  returned  to  the  gross  debaucheries  .in 
which  he  revelled.  Anything  more  selfish  or  cynical 
cannot  be  conceived,  and  those  who  call  vile  acts  by 
their  plain  names  will  not  feel  inclined  to  become  Sulla's 
apologists. 

When  he  died  he  left  behind  him,  it  is  said,  v/hat  he 
may  have  meant  as  his  epitaph,  an  inscription  contain- 
ing the  purport  of  three  lines  in  the  '  Medea" — 

Let  no  man  deem  me  weak  or  womanly, 
Or  nerveless,  but  of  quite  another  mood, 
A  scourge  to  foes,  beneficent  to  friends. 

Pompeius,  the  only  man  who  had  successfully  bearded 
him,  was  the  only  friend  not  mentioned  in  his  will.     If 


198  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.       CH.  xiv. 

anything  could  palliate  his  remorseless  selfishness  it  is 
the  candour  with  which  he  confessed  it.  He  had  made 
a  vast  private  fortune  out  of  his  countrymen's  misery. 
When  he  surrendered  his  dictatorship  he  offered  a  tenth 
of  his  property  to  Hercules,  and  gave  a  banquet  to  the 
people  on  so  profuse  a  scale  that  great  quantities  of  food 
were  daily  thrown  into  the  Tiber.  Some  of  the  wine 
was  forty  years  old,  perhaps  wine  of  that  vintage  which 
was  gathered  in  when  Caius  Gracchus  died.  In  the 
middle  of  the  banquet  his  wife  Metella  sickened,  and  in 
order  that,  as  Pontifex,  he  might  prevent  his 
Mctediia°IudS  home  being  polluted  by  death  he  divorced 
marries  her  anc[  removed  her  to  another  house 

again. 

while  sti-1  alive.  Soon  afterwards  he  married 
another  wife,  who  at  a  gladiatorial  show  came  and 
plucked  his  sleeve,  in  order,  as  she  said,  to  obtain  some 

of  his  good  fortune.  The  rest  of  his  life 
J^*abdica~  was  spent,  near  Cumae,  in  hunting,  writing 

his  memoirs,  amusing  himself  with  actors, 
and  practising  all  sorts  of  debauchery.  Ten  days  be- 
fore he  died  he  settled  the  affairs  of  the  people  of  Puteo- 
li  at  their  request,  and  was  busy  in  collecting  funds  to 

restore  the  Capitol  up  to  the  last.    Some  say 

he  died  of  the  disease  which  destroyed 
Herod.  Some  say  that  there  13  no  such  disease.  Others 
say  that  he  broke  a  blood-vessel  when  in  a  rage.  He 
is  described  as  having  blue  eyes,  and  a  pale  face  so 
blotched  over  that  it  was  likened  to  a  mulberry  sprinkled 
with  meal. 

His  death,  78  B.C.,  was  the  signal  for  that  break-up  of 
his  political  institutions  to  which  he  had  wilfully  shut  his 
eyes.  The  great  men  at  Rome  began  to  wrangle  over  his 
P  iviiry  of  very  body  before  it  was  cold.  Lepidus,  whom 
P^ful^  Pompeius,  against  Sulla's  wishes,  had  helped 


CH.  xiv.     Personal  Rule  and  Death  of  Sulla.        199 

to  the  consulship,  opposed  a  public  funeral.  The 
other  consul  supported  it.  Sulla  had  with  his  usual 
shrewdness  divined  the  character  of  Lepidus,  and  told 
Pompeius  that  he  was  only  making  a  rival  powerful. 
Pompeius  opposed  Lepidus  now,  for  he  knew  that  the  par- 
tisans of  Sulla  would  insist  on  doing  honourtohis  memory. 
Appian  describes  the  funeral  at  length.  "  The 
body  was  borne  on  a  litter,  adorned  with  Funeral  of 

oulla. 

gold  and  other  royal  array,  amid  the  flourish 
of  triumpets,  and  with  an  escort  of  cavalry.  After  them 
followed  a  concourse  of  armed  men,  his  oid  soldiers,  who 
had  thronged  from  all  parts  and  fell  in  with  the  proces- 
sion as  each  came  up.  Besides  these  there  was  as  vast  a 
crowd  of  other  men  as  was  ever  seen  at  any  funeral.  In 
front  were  carried  the  axes  and  the  otner  symbols  of 
office  which  had  belonged  to  him  as  dictator.  But  it  was 
not  till  the  procession  reached  Rome  that  the  full  spl^n- 
dour  of  the  ceremonial  was  seen.  More  tnan  2,000  crowns 
of  gold  were  borne  in  front,  gifts  from  towns,  from  his 
old  comrades  in  arms,  and  his  personal  friends.  In  every 
other  respect,  too,  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  the 
funeral  was  past  description.  In  awe  of  the  veterans  all 
the  priests  of  all  the  sacred  fraternities  were  there  in  full 
robes,  with  the  Vestal  Virgins,  and  all  the  senators,  and 
all  the  magistrates,  each  in  his  garb  of  office.  Next,  in 
array  that  contrasted  with  theirs,  came  the  knights  of 
Rome  in  column,  then  all  the  men  whom  Sulla  had  com- 
manded in  his  wars,  and  who  had  vied  with  each  other 
in  hastening  there,  carrying  gilded  standards  and  silver- 
plated  shields.  There  was  also  a  countless  host  of  flute- 
players,  making  now  most  tender,  now  most  wailing 
music.  A  cry  of  benediction,  raised  by  the  senators,  was 
taken  up  by  the  knights  and  the  soldiers,  and  re-echoed 
by  the  people,  for  some  mourned  his  loss  in  reality,  an4 


200  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  xv. 

others  feared  the  soldiers  and  dreaded  him  in  death  as 
much  as  in  life,  the  present  scene  recalling  dreadful 
memories.  That  he  had  been  a  friend  to  his  friends  they 
could  not  but  admit ;  but  to  the  rest,  even  when  dead,  he 
was  still  terrible.  The  body  was  exhibited  before  the 
Rostra,  and  the  greatest  orator  of  the  time  spoke  the 
funeral  oration  ;  for  Faustus,  Sulla's  son,  was  too  young 
to  do  so.  Then  some  strong  senators  took  up  the  litter 
on  their  shoulders  and  bore  it  to  the  Campus  Martius, 
where  kings  only  were  wont  to  be  buried.  There  it  was 
placed  on  the  funeral  pyre ;  and  the  knights  and  all  the 
army  circled  round  it  in  solemn  procession.  And  that 
was  Sulla's  ending." 

To  the  student  of  history  the  story  of  such  a  funeral 
seems  like  the  prostration  of  a  nation  of  barbarians  be- 
fore the  car  of  some  demon-god.  If  the  strong  per- 
sonality of  the  man — with  all  that  dauntless  bravery, 
that  unerring  sagacity,  that  trenchant  tongue — still  after 
two  thousand  years  fascinates  attention,  if  we  are  forced 
to  own  that  for  sheer  power  of  will  and  intellect  he 
stands  in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  men,  yet  we  feel 
also  that  in  the  case  of  such  superhuman  wickedness 
tyrannicide  would,  if  it  ever  could,  cease  to  be  a  crime. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
SULLA'S  REACTIONARY  MEASURES. 

IT  is  difficult  to  say  about  part  of  the  legislation  of  this 
period  whether  it  was  directly  due  to  Sulla  or  not,  just  as 
some  of  the  changes  in  the  army  may  or  may  not  have 
been  due  to  Marius,  but  were  certainly  made  about  his 
time.  The  method  of  gathering  together  all  the  changes 


CH.  xv.         Sulla' s  Reactionary  Measures.  201 

made  within  certain  dates,  attributing  them  to  one  man, 
and  basing  an  estimate  of  his  character  on  them,  has  a 
simplicity  about  it  which  enables  the  writer  to  be  graphic 
and  spares  the  reader  trouble,  but  is  an  unsatisfactory 
way  of  presenting  history.  Enough,  however,  is  known 
of  Sulla's  own  measures  to  make  their  general  tendency 
perfectly  plain.  His  main  object  was  to  restore  the 
authority  of  the  Senate,  and  to  do  more  than  restore  it, 
to  give  it  such  power  as  might,  if  it  was  true 

Main  oKject 

to  itself,  secure  it  from  mob-rule  on  the  one  of  Sulla's 
hand  and  tyranny  on  the  other.  Though  he 
foresaw  that  his  efforts  would  be  futile,  he  was  none  the 
less  energetic  in  making  them,  and  may  reasonably  have 
hoped  that  they  would  at  all  events  last  his  time,  and 
enable  him  to  enjoy  himself  in  Campania,  undisturbed 
by  another  revolution.  Our  acquaintance  with  his  laws 
is  only  second-hand,  for  none  of  them  survive  in  their 
original  form.  They  are  known  as  Leges  Corneliae,  a 
term  which,  though  applicable  to  some  other  laws,  is 
usually  applied  to  those  of  his  making. 

The  Senate  had  originally  been  an  advising  council. 
Then  it  had  acquired  superior  authority,  and  issued 
commands  to  the  magistrates.  It  was  placed  by  Sulla 
in  a  still  higher  position.  To  fill  up  its  ex-  „ 

He  recon- 

hausted  ranks  he  admitted  to  it  300  of  the        stitutes  the 
equestrian  order ;  and,  though  it  is  not  cer- 
tain what  its  numbers  were  to  be,  it  is  probable  that 
they  were  fixed  at  about  500.     Then  he  provided  for 
keeping  the  list  full  for  the  future.    Hitherto       fius  it  up 
a  man  had  become  a  senator  either  at  the      from  the 

quaestors ; 

censor's  summons  (of  which  he  was  practi- 
cally certain  if  he  had  been  tribune  or  quaes-        ih^mfmbcr 
tor),  or,  if  he  had  been  consul,  praetor  or       of  the 
aedile.       Sulla  made  the    quaestorship   in- 


202  The  Gracchi^  Marius,  and  Sulla.     CH.  xv. 

stead   of   the    aedileship     the     regular    stepping-stone, 

and  increased  the  number  of  the  quaestors  to  twenty. 

He   also,  in    all   probability,    though   it   is   not   certain, 

took   away   from   the   censors    their    right 

degrades  . 

the  censor-  of  conierrmg  or  taking  away  senatorial 
rank.  "  Once  a  senator,  always  a  senator," 
was  therefore  now  the  rule  ;  and  as  the  quaestors,  who 
were  the  main  source  of  supply,  were  nominated  by  the 
Comitia  Tributa,  the  Senate  became  a  more  representa- 
tive as  well  as  a  more  permanent  body  than  before,  and 
independent  of  the  magistrates. 

Secondly,  we  have  seen  that  Sulla  had  given  to  the 
Senate  by  law  the  power  which  it  had  previously  exer- 
cised only  by  custom,  of  deliberating  on  a 
Legislative         measure  before  it  was  submitted  to  the  vote 

initi.itive 

given  to  the       of   the   Comitia.      This   was    one    security 

Senate.  .  .     .  .     , 

against  any  measure  being  carried  against 
its  interests.  Before  this  the  practice  had  been  either 
for  the  Senate  through  the  tribunes  to  submit  a  measure 
to  the  vote,  or  for  the  tribunes  to  submit  a  measure  of 
their  own  after  obtaining  the  Senate's  authority  to  do  so. 
Saturninus,  as  we  have  seen,  had  overridden  this  cus- 
tom, and  the  only  way  in  which  the  Senate  could 
maintain  its  old  privileges  would  have  been  either  by 
proclaiming  a  justitium,  as  it  did  on  that  occasion,  or  by 
picking  out  some  technical  informality  in  the  passing  of 
the  plebiscitum,  had  not  Sulla  thus  made  its  previous 
authorization  absolutely  indispensable.  The  tribunes, 

being  deprived  of  the  power  of  proposing  a 
SUtrheilment  measure  at  will  to  the  Comita  Tributa,  would 
tribunes'  also  lose  the  power  of  prosecuting  anyone 

before  it,  and  probably  lost  the  right  of 
convening  meetings  in  order  to  address  the  people. 
Sulla,  too,  provided  that  those  who  had  been  tribunes 


CH.  xv.          Sulla's  Reactionary  Measures.  203 

should  be  ineligible  to  other  offices,  and,  though  the 
right  of  veto  seems  to  have  been  left  to  them,  it  is  not 
clear  that  it  was  left  without  restrictions,  while  the  abuse 
of  it  was  made  a  heavily  punishable  offence,  It  is  likely 
also  that  he  made  senators  the  only  persons  eligible  to 
the  tribunate.  Positively,  therefore,  by  making  the  Se- 
nate's previous  consent  to  a  law  necessary,  and  nega- 
tively by  these  limitations  of  the  prerogative  of  the 
tribunes,  legislative  power  was  placed  wholly  in  the 
Senate's  hands. 

Thirdly,  the  balance  in  the  Comitia  themselves  was  so 
adjusted  that  the  voting  would  be  mostly  in  the  Senate's 
interests.  Something  has  already  been  said  of  Sulla's 
changes  on  this  head,  in  reverting  to  the  Servian  mode 
of  voting  (p.  136).  Some  explanation  of  what  this  means 
may  be  given  here.  Sulla  did  not  abolish 
the  Comitia  Tributa  ;  but  the  measures  just  Changes  in 

J  the  Comitia. 

mentioned,  as  they  left  the  practical  power 

of  legislation  with  the  Senate,  left  the  formal  power  with 

the  Comitia  Centuriata.      We  know  the   origin   of  the 

Comitia  Centuriata.     We  do  not  know  the  origin  of  the 

Comitia  Tributa.     But  we  do  know  that  by 

degrees  the  latter  obtained  legislative  power      Xefcomitia 

co-ordinate   with   that   of  the   former,  and      Tributa  and 

,  *       ™    i  •      •  i  i  •      *•  Centuriata. 

that  the  Plebiscitum  became  as  binding  on 
the  nation  as  the  Lex.  There  were  in  short  two  parallel 
bodies  in  which  the  people  could  make  laws— ranged  in 
the  one  by  tribes,  and  voting  on  measures  submitted  to 
them  by  their  tribunes ;  ranged  in  the  other  by  cen- 
turies, and  voting  on  measures  submitted  to  them  by  the 
consul..  But  as  the  State  became  more  and  more  demo- 
cratic, the  Comitia  Tributa  was  more  used  than  the 
Comitia  Centuriata,  in  which  legislation  was  gradually 
confined  to  special  matters  assigned  to  them  by  law  or 


204  The  Gracchiy  Marius  and  Sulla.       CH.  xv. 

custom.  Besides  these  functions  the  Comitia  Tributa 
decided  on  war  or  peace,  elected  the  tribunes,  aediles, 
and  lesser  magistrates,  and  also  usurped  judicial  power, 
arraigning  magistrates  for  their  conduct  in  office,  &c. 
The  functions  of  the  Comitia  Centuriata  were,  as  we 
have  seen,  also  legislative.  They  elected  to  the  higher 
magistracies  and  exercised  jurisdiction  in  capital  cases, 
a  function  which  grew  out  of  the  Roman  citizen's  right 
to  appeal.  Each  century  had  one  vote ;  and  as  by  the 
Servian  arrangement  the  first  class,  though  containing 
fewest  voters,  had  nevertheless,  owing  to  its  highest 
assessment,  most  votes,  it  could  by  itself  outvote  the 
other  classes.  At  some  time  or  other  this  classification 
was  altered;  and  a  new  system,  based  partly  on  cen- 
turies and  partly  on  tribes,  came  into  use.  Each  tribe 
was  divided  into  ten  centuries,  five  of  seniors  and  five  of 
juniors.  The  first  class  consisted  of  one  of  each  of  these 
from  each  tribe,  so  that,  as  there  were  thirty-five  tribes, 
each  class  would  consist  of  seventy  centuries.  It  is  said 
by  some  that  the  first  class  included  also  thirty-five  cen- 
turies, or  eighteen  centuries  of  equites.  If  this  be  true, 
the  first  class  would  still  have  retained  the  preponde- 
rance of  votes.  In  any  case  it  had  the  best  of  the 
voting,  for  even  if  it  was  decided  by  lot  which  century 
of  all  the  centuries  should  vote  first,  still  the  first 
class  voted  second,  and  the  moral  effect  of  the  wealthier 
and  weightier  citizens  voting  one  way  or  other  would 
naturally  influence  the  votes  of  the  other  centuries. 
Moreover  some  say  that  the  lot  was  confined  to  the  cen- 
turies of  the  first  class.  Such  then  was  the  original  and 
such  the  modified  constitution  of  the  Comitia  Centuriata. 
Appian  expressly  states  that  Sulla  reverted  to  the  origi- 
Sulla's  legisla-  nal  mode  of  voting.  Buthemay  be  confusing 
ComUiaUt  the  things,  and  only  mean  that  Sulla  took  the 


CH.  xv.         Sulla's  Reactionary  Measures.  205 

voting  power  from  the  Comitia  Tributa  and  vested  it  in 
the  Comitia  Centuriata.  And  this  probably  is  what  Sulla 
did. 

Fourthly,  as  Sulla  weakened  the  censorship  in  order 
to  exalt  the  Senate's  authority  at  its  expense,  so,  to 
prevent  any  individual  again  obtaining  undue  influence, 
he  ordained  that  no  man  should  be  consul  till  he  had 
been  first  quaestor  and  then  praetor,  and  that  Curtailmellt 
no  man  should  be  re-eligible  to  a  curule  of  the 
office  till  after  an  interval  of  ten  years.  This,  oonapls  and* 
however,  was  not  enough.  It  was  his  object  prse 
to  curtail  the  powers  of  every  magistrate.  And  there- 
fore, though  the  consulate  was  not  dangerous  to  the 
Senate  in  the  sense  that  the  tribunate  was,  he  laid  hands 
both  on  it  and  on  the  praetorship.  The  functions  of  the 
consuls  and  praetors  had  hitherto  been 
these.  The  consuls  had  the  general  super-  powers"5 
intendence  of  all  except  judicial  matters  offices'™ 
at  home,  and  the  military  superintendence 
in  all  the  provinces  except  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  the  two 
Spains,  in  which  they  only  occasionally  exercised  their 
imperium.  One  praetor,  the  Praetor  Urbanus,  presided 
over  civil  suits  between  Roman  citizens.  Another,  the 
Praetor  Peregrinus,  superintended  such  suits  between  a 
citizen  and  an  alien  or  between  two  aliens.  The  other 
four  were  over  the  four  above-mentioned  provinces.  In 
case  of  need  one  man  could  do  the  work  both  of  the 
Praetor  Urbanus  and  the  Praetor  Peregrinus,  leaving  his 
colleague  free  for  a  military  command.  Or  the  consul  or 
praetor  might  have  his  term  of  office  extended,  being 
bound  to  continue  in  his  command  till  a  successor  ar- 
rived. Or  one  consul  might  manage  the  ordinary  func- 
tions of  both,  and  the  other  be  similarly  left  free  for  some 
special  employment.  The  Senate  could  in  any  given 


206  The  Gracchi,  Marius  and  Sulla.       CH.  xv. 

year  assign,  as  business  to  be  superintended  by  a  consul 
or  a  praetor,  some  military  command  or  judicial  commis- 
sion, and  then  the  consuls  or  praetors  had  to  settle  by  lot 
or  by  agreement  who  should  undertake  it.  As  the  State 
grew  greater  these  special  assignations  had  to  be  made 
oftener.  There  had  been  eight  officials  for  eight  offices  ; 
now  five  new  superintendents  had  to  be  provided  for 
Asia,  Africa,  Macedonia,  Narbo,  and  Cilicia,  as  well  as 
one  for  the  Qusestio  de  Repetundis.  To  enable  eight 
men  to  do  the  work  of  fourteen  the  Senate  made  prolon- 
gation of  office  for  a  second  year  the  rule,  and  the  offi- 
cials confined  by  the  nature  of  these  duties  to 
•Sitme  W  tne  C^y  during  these  years  of  office  were  gen- 

erally sent  at  the  end  of  it  to  the  transmarine 
provinces,  where  most  money  was  to  be  made.  Sulla  in- 
creased the  six  praetors  to  eight,  and  made  the  two  years' 
term  of  office  the  legal  term.  But  if  this  added  to  their 
power  in  appearance,  he  diminished  it  in  reality  by  sepa- 
rating the  civil  from  the  military  functions  altogether. 
The  consuls  and  praetors  were  to  manage  the  civil  busi- 
ness of  Rome.  The  proconsuls  and  propraetors  were  to 
command  the  army.  In  the  first  year  of  office  the  two 
consuls  had  the  general  administration  of  Rome,  and  two 
of  the  praetors  its  judicial  administration.  The  other  six 
presided  over  the  various  courts.  In  the  second  the  ten 
exercised  the  imperium  in  Sicily,  Sardinia,  the  two 
Spains,  Asia,  Africa,  Macedonia,  Cilicia,  and  the 
two  Gauls,  and  none  of  them  might  stay  in  his  province 
beyond  thirty  days  after  his  successor's  arrival ;  or, 
under  penalties  for  treason,  might  leave  his  province 
during  his  term  ;  or  attack  a  foreign  power  without  ex- 
„„.  press  leave  from  home.  The  effect  of  all 

xLtlect  of  * 

the  new  this  is  plain.     Whereas  formerly  the  magis- 

trates, directly  elected  in  the  Comitia,  might 


CH.  xv.         Sulla? s  Reactionary  Measures.  207 

combine  civil  and  military  authority,  now  the  military 
authority  could  only  be  held  by  those  whose  term  of 
office  was  prolonged  by  the  Senate's  pleasure  ;  for, 
though  the  practice  became  invariable,  it  remained  at 
the  Senate's  discretion  to  break  through  it  when  it 
chose. 

Fifthly,  having  thus  lessened  the  power  of  the  censors, 
consuls,  praetors,  and  tribunes,  he  by  way  of  compensa- 
tion— a  serio-comic  compensation  it  must 

.  .  .  .  Co-optation 

have  seemed  to  his  shrewd  yet  superstitious      restored  to 
mind — restored  the  right  of  co-optation  to 
the  sacred  colleges  of  augurs  and  pontiffs,  and  increased 
their  numbers,  thus  multiplying  harmless  objects  of  ri- 
valry analogous  to  the  ribands  and  garters  of  modern 
courts. 

Sixthly,  he  took  away  from  the  equites  and  restored 
to  the  Senate  the  judicia. 

The  judicia  have  been  often  mentioned,  and  some- 
thing may  be  said  about  them  here.     In  civil  suits  the 
praetor,  as  we  have  seen,  had  the  superin- 
tendence.    Sometimes  he  decided  a  case  at      Restoration 

or  the 

once.     Sometimes,  if  he  thought  the  case      Judicia  to 

...  .    .  the  Senate. 

should  be  tried,  he  appointed  a  judex,  giving 
him  certain  instructions  by  which  after  the 

Procedure 

investigation  he  must  decide  the  case.     His      in  civil 
action  here  would  be  something  like  one  of 
our  judge's  charges,  but  given  before  hearing  the  evi- 
dence.    There  is  nothing  to  prove  that  a  judex  of  this 
kind  was  at  this  time  taken  from  any  special  class,  or 
that  Sulla  interfered  with  the  established  mode  of  proce- 
dure.    It  was  about  the  constitution  of  the    . 

Organization 

criminal  courts  that  the  long  struggle  had   of  criminal 

raged  between  the  Senate  and  equites,  and 

here  he  made  great  changes.     He  found  some  perma- 


2o8  The  Gracchi y  Marius,  and  Sulla.       CH.  xv 

nent  criminal  courts  (e.  g.  the  Quaestio  de  Repetundis 
or  court  for  investigating  cases  of  extortion  in  the  pn> 
vinces)  already  in  existence.  He  instituted  or  settled 
others  ;  but  it  cannot  be  ascertained  how  many  of  the 
following,  which  were  in  existence  after  his  time,  were 
due  to  him.  There  were  at  least  nine  of  these  perma- 
nent courts  (Quaestiones  Perpetuae) :  the  Quaestio  Ma- 
jestatis ;  de  vi ;  de  sicariis,  &c ;  de  veneficiius ;  de 
parricidio;  de  falso  ;  de  repetundis;  peculatus ;  ambitus; 
or  courts  for  trying  cases  of  treason,  violence,  assassina- 
tion, poisoning,  parricide,  forgery,  extortion,  embezzle- 
ment, and  bribery.  And  there  may  have  been  more, 
e.  g.  de  adulteriis  and  de  plagiis,  for  trying  cases  of 
adultery  and  the  enslavement  of  freemen.  His  object 
in  consolidating  them  was  to  take  from  the 

Procedure 

in  the  Comitia  the  settlement   of  criminal   cases, 

courts.  j  ,         ,      -    ,       .,  .       r  .      . 

and  to  obviate  the  necessity  for  appointing 
special  commissions.  For  there  was  no  appeal  from  the 
quaestio,  and  a  special  commission  was  seldom  requisite 
when  so  many  courts  were  available.  To  preside  in 
these  courts  there  were  six  praetors ;  but,  as  there  were 
more  courts  than  praetors,  a  senator,  called  judex  quaes- 
tionis,  was  appointed  annually  for  each  court  where  a 
president  was  wanting,  something  after  the  fashion  by 
which  one  of  our  judges  sometimes  in  press  of  business 
appoints  a  barrister  as  his  deputy  to  clear  off  the  cases. 
The  praetor,  or  judex  quaestionis,  presided  over  the 
judices  in  each  court,  and  the  judices  returned  a  verdict 
by  a  majority  of  votes,  sometimes  given  by  ballot,  some- 
times openly.  In  choosing  these  judices  this  was  the 
process.  The  whole  number  available  was,  it  is  said, 
300,  divided  into  three  decuriae.  In  any  given  case  the 
praetor  named  the  decuria  from  which  the  jurymen  were 
to  be  taken,  and  then  drew  from  an  urn  containing  their 


CH.  xv.         Sulla's  Reactionary  Measures.  209 

names  the  number  assigned  by  law  for  the  case  to  be 
decided.  Each  side  could  then  challenge  a  certain 
number,  and  fresh  names  were  drawn  from  the  urn  in 
place  of  those  challenged.  What  Sulla  did  was  to  supply 
these  decuriae  from  the  senators  instead  of  the  equites. 

One  of  the  permanent  courts  found  by  Sulla  already 
existing  was  that  of  the  Centumviri,  who  had  jurisdiction 
over  disputed  inheritances.  The  members  of  it  were 
elected  by  the  tribes,  three  by  each  tribe,  105  in  all. 
Though  it  was  directly  elected  by  the  people,  Sulla  could 
apprehend  no  danger  from  such  a  court,  and  did  not 
meddle  with  it. 

Other  measures  are  attributed  to  Sulla  on  evidence 
more  or  less  probable,  such  as  the  suppression  of 
gratuitous  distributions  of  corn ;  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  right  of  freedmen  to  vote,  and  of  measures 
the  reserved  seats  appropriated  to  the  to'sulla^ 
equites  at  public  festivals;  the  re-establish- 
ment in  Asia  of  fixed  taxes  instead  of  the  farming  sys- 
tem ;  the  extension  of  Italy  proper  from  the  JEsis  to  the 
Rubicon,  and  the  conversion  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  into  a 
province.  It  may  be  considered  certain  that  he  did  all 
that  he  could  to  humiliate  the  equites;  but  the  settle- 
ment of  Italy  was  probably  not  due  to  him. 

Other  minor  laws  of  which  he  was  the  author  dealt 
with  specific  criminal  offences  or  social  matters.     One, 
as   we  have   seen    (p.   208)   specified    the 
penalties  for  all  sorts  of  assassination  and         His  minor 

.          .  measures. 

poisoning.  Another  dealt  with  forgery,  an- 
other with  violence  to  the  person  or  property,  another 
with  marriage  and  probably  adultery.  Another  was  a 
sumptuary  law,  which  is  said  to  have  limited  the  price 
of  certain  luxuries.  If  this  was  the  case  it  was  even 
sillier  than  other  sumptuary  laws,  for  it  would  have  en* 
P 


210  The  Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.      CH.  xv. 

couraged  instead  of  checking  gluttony.  Lastly,  there 
was  a  law  for  the  settlement  of  his  colonies  through 
Italy,  and  at  Aleria  in  Corsica. 

Sulla  had  for  the  moment  undone  by  his  legislation 
the  work  of  ages.     He  gagged  free  speech  by  the  dis- 
abilities attached  to  the  tribunate.     He  kept 

Effects  of 

Sulla's  the  government  within  a  close  circle  by  his 

legislation.  process  of  recruiting  the  Senate.  He  made 
the  magistrates  subordinate  to  the  Senate.  He  filled 
Italy  and  Rome  with  his  own  partisans,  and  therefore 
with  those  of  the  Senate,  and  he  gave  back  to  the  Senate 
that  coveted  possession  of  the  judicia  for  which  it  had 
struggled  so  long  with  the  equites.  But  a  system  which 
could  endure  only  by  the  repression  not  only  of  hostile 
interests  but  of  the  ambition  of  its  own  adherents  carried 
in  itself  the  seeds  of  early  dissolution.  Almost  before 
the  reaction  was  complete  a  counter  re-action  had  begun. 
Abdication  only  revealed  monarchy,  and  the  broad 
road  which  Sulla  had  laid  over  the  breakers  and  quick- 
sands of  revolution  in  reality  paved  the  way  to  a  throne. 
When  he  abdicated,  he  offered  to  render  account  to 
anyone  for  his  acts,  and  there  is  a  story  that  one  young 
man  thereupon  followed  him  to  his  home  loading  him 
with  abuse,  which  Sulla  listened  to  with  meekness.  If 
the  story  be  true,  the  incident  was  probably 

Sulla's  abdi-  J 

cation  a  a  pre-arranged  part  of  the  ceremony  of  ab- 

dication, which  in  everything,  except  the 
fact  that  Sulla  slipped  off  the  cares  of  government,  was 
of  course  a  farce.  His  funeral  showed  what  his  real 
power  continued  to  be,  and,  if  another  anecdote  be  true, 
just  before  his  death  he  had  a  magistrate  of  Puteoli 
strangled  because  he  had  not  collected  in  time  his  town's 
subscription  to  the  restoration  of  the  Capitol.  He  had 
in  fact  done  mischievously  what  the  Gracchi  would  have 


GH.  xv.         Sulla's  Reactionary  Measures.  211 

done  beneficently  ;  and  greedy  swordsmen  occupied  the  ' 
soil  which  the  tribunes  would  have  divided  peaceably 
among  peaceable  men.     The  civil  wars  and  the  trium- 
virates are  the  best  vindication  of  the  policy      The  policy 
of  the  Gracchi,  unless  we  can  bring  our-      of  the 
selves  to  fancy  that  the  Gracchi  created,  in-      justified  by 
stead   of  attempting   wisely    to   satisfy,  the 
demands  of  the   age.     By   an   orderly  intermixture  of 
Italians  and  foreigners  with  the  corrupt  body  of  Roman 
citizens  new  life  might  have  been  infused  into  the  old 
system,  and  something  foreshadowing  modern  represen- 
tative government  have  been  established,  without  pro- 
scription or  praetorian  rule.  As  it  was,  the  vices  of  socie- 
ty only  became  aggravated  at  an  era  of  violence,  and 
the  sharpest  remedies  failed  to  stay  the  creeping  paraly- 
sis by  which  it  was  assailed. 

The  gradual  depopulation  of  Italy  has  already  been 
described.  In  spite  of  Sulla's  colonies  the  ruin  of  the 
country  must  have  been  vastly  accelerated  by  his  civil 
wars  and  those  which  followed  them.  And,  while  the 
honest  country  class  was  dying  out,  the  town  class  was 
ever  plunging  deeper  into  frivolity  and  voluptuousness. 
To  defray  the  cost  of  the  sumptuous  life  of  the  capital 
the  fashionable  spendthrift  was  forced  to  resort  to  extor- 
tion in  the  provinces,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  became 
so  crying  an  evil  that  a  permanent  court  existed  for  deal- 
ing with  it  before  the  time  of  Sulla.  The  greedy  throve 
on  usury,  or  involved  the  State  in  war,  to  fill  their  own 
purses.  The  fortunes  amassed  by  an  Aquillius,  a  Verres, 
a  Lucullus,  spoke  as  eloquently  of  Rome's  rapacity 
abroad  as  did  those  of  Crassus  or  Sulla  in  Italy.  Such 
being  the  state  of  things  under  the  government  which 
Sulla  strove  to  perpetuate,  his  character  as  a  statesman 
deserves  as  strong  reprobation  as  his  conduct  as  a  man. 


212  The  Gracchi,  Man  us,  and  Sulla.       CH.  xv. 

To  lay  down  power  from  a  sense  of  duty  is  one  thing. 
Cynically  to  shrink  from  responsibility  is  another.  The 
misery  of  the  following  half-century  must  be  laid  chiefly 
at  Sulla's  door.  The  inevitable  goal  to  which  everything 
was  tending  was  as  patent  in  his  time  as  in  the  time  of 
Augustus.  Whatever  may  have  been  for  the  interest  of 
the  Roman  aristocracy,  monarchy  was  by  this  time  for 
the  interest  of  the  Roman  world. 


It  has  been  suggested  that  the  following  List  of  Phrases 
occurring  in  the  History  may  be  useful.  But  the 
definitions  are  only  approximately  precise. 

j&rarium.     The  State  Treasury. 

Capite  Censi.  Roman  citizens  rated  by  the  head  only,  as  having 
no  property. 

Cives  Romani.  Citizens  of  Rome,  a  Roman  colony,  or  a  Munici- 
pium. 

Clientes.  Dependents  of  the  Patres.  Free,  but  not  Cives  Ro- 
mani. 

Comitia  Centuriata.  The  subdivisions  (193  or  194  in  number)  ol 
the  six  classes  into  which  the  Romans  were  divided,  according  to 
property,  were  called  Centuries,  and  the  assembly  of  them 
Comitia  Centuriata. 

Comitia  Tributa.  The  assembly  in  which  the  people  voted  ac- 
cording to  the  tribes  or  territorial  divisions. 

Dominium.     Ownership. 

Equites.  Originally  the  men  rich  enough  to  maintain  war-horses ; 
afterwards  the  rich  class  corresponding  to  our  city  men. 

Flamen.     A  priest  of  some  particular  god. 

Frumentaria.     Lex.     A  law  for  cheapening  corn. 

Imperator.  The  ktitle  given  on  the  battle-field  to  a  successful 
general  by  his  soldiers. 

Imperium.  The  power  given  by  the  State  to  an  individual  who 
was  to  command  an  army. 

Interrex.  An  official  appointed  to  hold  an  election  of  consuls 
when  the  regular  mode  of  election  had  not  been  followed. 

Judicia.     Bodies  of  jurymen  (judices)  who  tried  criminal  cases. 

yugerum.     A  measure  of  surface  240  feet  long,  120  broad. 

Justitium.  A  suspension  of  public  business  for  some  religious 
observance. 

Latifundia.     Large  estates  cultivated  by  slave-labour. 

Latini.     See  p.  17. 

Lcgati.  Officers  of  the  general's  suite  corresponding  to  our  gen- 
erals of  division. 

2I3 


214  List  of  Phrases. 

Llbertini.  The  class  of  freedmen  known  as  Lib erti,  with  reference 
to  freeborn  men,  Libertini  with  reference  to  each  other. 

Municipia.  Conquered  Italian  towns  having  the  right  of  acquir- 
ing property  in  the  Roman  State  (Commercium),  and  marrying 
the  daughter  of  a  Roman  citizen  (Connubium),  but  unable  to 
acquire  the  honors  of  the  State  (Jus  Honoris),  or  to  vote  at 
Rome  (Jus  Suffragii). 

Negotiators .     Money-lenders. 

Nobiles.     The  offspring  of  men  who  had  held  a  curule  office. 

Optimates.  The  senatorial  party  at  and  after  the  era  of  the 
Gracchi. 

Patrts.  I.  Originally  Cives  Romani,  the  governing  body  at  Rome. 
2.  Afterwards  the  Senate. 

Patronus.  A  Pater  with  reference  to  a  Client.  A  Dominus  with 
reference  to  a  Libertus. 

Perduellio.    Abuse  of  official  position  injurious  to  the  State. 

Pilum.  A  wooden  shaft  4^  feet  long,  with  an  iron  head  2  feet  3 
inches  long.  There  was  also  a  lighter  kind. 

Plebiscitum.  i.  A  resolution  of  the  people.  2.  Equivalent  to 
lex. 

Plebz.  Originally  the  free  citizens  of  Rome  who  had  no  political 
privileges. 

Populares.  The  anti-senatorial  party  at  and  after  the  time  of  the 
Gracchi. 

Possessor.    An  occupier  of  public  land. 

Prcefectura.  A  Roman  Colony,  or  Municipium,  in  which  a  Ro- 
man Prsefectus  administered  justice. 

Proletarii.     Roman  citizens  rated  at  less  than  1,500  asses. 

Publicani.     Farmers  of  the  revenue. 

Rostra.  A  name  given  to  the  stage  in  the  Forum  where  speakers 
addressed  the  people.  So  called  because  ornamented  with 
beaks  of  ships  captured  from  the  enemy. 

Scriptura.  A  tax  paid  to  the  State  on  cattle  grazing  on  public 
land. 

Socii.     Free  inhabitants  of  Italy.     See  p.  17. 

Vectigal.  i.  A  tax  of  one- tenth  of  the  year's  crops.  2.  The  re- 
venue produced  by  the  Scriptura. 


INDEX. 


ADH 

A  DHERBAL,  67-71. 
^-\.     ^Edui,  the,  86. 
Ager  Publicus,  5. 
Agrarian  law,  the  first,  7. 
Ahenobarbus,  Domitius,  86. 
Albinus,  Aulus,  74. 
Albinus,  Sp.,  74. 
Allobroges,  the,  86. 
Ambrones,  the,  91,  92. 
Antyllus.  58. 
Aquae  Sextiae,  91. 
Archelaus,  147,  157-169. 
Atistion,  159. 
Aristonicus,  66,  67. 
Army,  the  Roman,  98-101. 
Arverni,  the,  86. 
Asculum,  114,  117.   - 
Asia,  taxation  of,  51. 
Athenion,  96. 
Athens,  siege  of,  161-163. 
Attalus  of  Pergamus,  65. 

B^BIUS,  73. 
Bestia,  73. 
Blossius,  36,  38,  66. 
Bocchus,  78-80 
Bomilcar,  73,  77. 


,  Q.  Servilius,  83. 
\_s     Capsa,  79. 
Calvinus,  85. 
Carbo,  173,  175,  179,  183. 
Cassius,  Sp.,  7. 
Catiline,  195. 
Catulus,  93,  95,  145. 
Centumviri,  the,  209. 
Chaeroneia,  battle  of,  165,  166. 
Cimbri,  87-94. 


GRA 

Cinna,  L.Cornelius,  137,  141-147* 

Cirta,  69,  79,  80. 

Gives,  Romani,  the,  17. 

Cleon,  14. 

Clientes,  2. 

Colline  Gate,  battle  of  the,  184. 

Colony,  a  Roman,  17. 

Commercium,  3. 

Comitia  Centuriata,  203,  204. 

Comitia  Tribuia,  202,  203. 

Connubium,  17. 

Cornelia,  47,  61. 

Crassus,  P.  Licinius,  66. 


DAMOPHILUS,  13. 
Domitia  Via,  86. 
Drnsus,  M.  Livius  (i)  56,  57;  (2)  109 

-112. 


T^NGLAND,    history    of    Rome 
lV/    compared  to  that  of,  4. 
Equites,  the,  16. 
Equitius,  107. 
Eunous,  13,  14. 


FIMBRIA,  147,  170,  171. 
Flaccus,  Fulvius,  57-61. 
Fregellae,  revolt  of,  43. 


f  AUDA,  81,83. 
VJ     Geminius,  138,  139. 
Glaucia,  C.  Servilius,  102-109. 
Gordms,  149. 
Gracchus,  C.,  37-65. 
Gracchus,  T  ,  25-37. 

215 


Index. 


H 


HEL 

ELVETIA,  the,  87. 
Hortensius,  164,  165. 


TUGURTHA,  67. 
J      Jus  Honorum,  17. 

*~  Suffragii,  17. 


L^ENAS  Popilius,  48,  62. 
Lamponius,  126,  181. 
Lex  Baebia,  62,  63. 
«—  Cassia,  7. 
• —  Flaminia,  9. 
<—  Frumentaria  of  C.  Gracchus,  48. 

—  Judiciaria  of  C.  Gracchus,  50. 

—  Julia,  122. 

«—  Junia  de  Peregrinis,  42. 
•—  Licinia,  7. 

—  Maria,  61. 
>—  Papiria,  42. 

—  Plautia  Papiria,  123. 
• —  Servilia,  104. 

—  Thoria,  63. 

Lucullus,  (i)  95,  97;  (2)  162,  170,  171, 
Lupus,  119. 
Luxury  at  Rome,  75. 


MANTONIUS,  145. 
•     M'.  Aquillius,  67, 97, 154-157. 
Mariani  Muli,  98. 
Marius,  C.  (i)  61,  78-146 ;  (2)  137, 140, 

179-181,  185. 
Massiva,  73. 
Megallis,  13. 

Metellus,  Q.  Caecilius,  76-78. 
Memmius,  72,  73. 
Merula,  L.,  145. 
Mithridates,  149-169. 
Municipium,  17. 
Murena,  166,  172,  188,  189. 
Mutilus,  C.  Papius,  117-119,  125,128. 


NOBILES,  15. 
Norbanus,  176,  177. 


OCTAVIUS,  141-143- 
Ofella,  175,  185,  188. 
Opimius,  58,  60,  69,  75. 
Optimates,  15. 
Orchomenus,  167. 
Oxyntas,  119. 


THA 

PATRES,  2. 
Perduellio,  62. 
Peregrini,  the,  17. 
Philippus,  the,  in,  176. 
Piraeus,  siege  of,  160-162. 
Plebeians,  3. 
Pompeius,  Cn.  (i)  127,  134,  142,  143; 

(a)  1*3:  *75,  176,  188. 
Pont  '"us,  C.,  128,  183-185. 
.Fopulares,  15. 
Praefectura,  17. 
Proscriptions  of  Marius  and  Cinna, 

i44,  145- 
Provincials,  17. 


/^V 


,  206,  208. 


RHONE,  canal  cut  from,  by  Ma- 
rius, 89. 
Roscius,  193. 
Rubrius,  36. 
Rufus  Rutilius,  89. 
Rupillius,  14. 

SACRIPORTUS,  battle  of,  179. 
Salvius,  96. 
Salyes,  the,  85. 
Saturni::us,  101-107. 
Satyreias,  P.,  37. 
Satynis,  97. 
Scaevoia,  37. 
Scaurus,  M.  ^Emilius,  69,  71,  72,  87, 

108,  115. 

Scipio  ^Emilianus,  23-25,  40,  41. 
Scipio  Nasica,  37. 
Septimuleius,  60. 
Sertorius,  142,  177,  178,  189,  190. 
Silo  Pompaedius,  116,  118,  121,  126. 
Slavery,  Roman,  10,  n. 
Slave  War,  the  first,  12-14. 
—        —      the  second,  95,  96. 
Social  War,  The,  112-128. 
Society,  deterioration  of  Roman,  20- 

22,   75. 

Sulla,  L.  Cornelius,  84-211. 
Sulla's  laws,  156,  200-210. 
Snlpician  laws,  the,  128-137. 
Sulpicius,  128-130. 

rAXILES,  163. 
Teanum,  story  of  Roman  cru« 
elty  at,  iq. 
Teutones,  the,  87-05. 
Thala,  78. 


Index. 


217 


TUR 

Tifata,  battle  of,  176. 
Tig^anes,  150,  151. 
Tiguroni.  the,  87. 
Tolosa,  the  gold  of,  87. 
Tribunate,  the,  3. 
Tuditanus,  Sempronius,  88. 
Tugeni,  the,  91. 
Turpilius,  78. 


VOL 

VAGA,  1 8. 
Venusia,   story  of  a  herdsman 
at,  10. 

Vercelfae,  94. 
Verres,  176,  194. 
Vettius,  98. 

Vettius  Scato,  118,  120. 
Volux,  80. 


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TROY— ITS  LEGEND,  HISTORY,  AND 
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THE    GREEKS    AND    THE    PERSIANS.      By 

Rev  G.  W.  Cox. 

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EPOCHS  OF  ANCIENT  H1STORV 

THE  ATHENIAN  EMPIRE— From  the  Flight 
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THE  MACEDONIAN  EMPIRE— Its  Rise  and 
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Great.  By  A.  M.  CURTEIS,  M.A. 

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of  conciseness  in  writing  was  never  carried  to  a  higher  or 
more  effective  point." — fioston  Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 

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Alexander. 


EPOCHS  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY 

EARLY  ROME— From  the  Foundation  of  the 
City  to  its  Destruction  by  the  Gauls.  By 
W.  IHNE,  Ph.D. 

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ROME  AND  CARTHAGE-The    Punic  Wars. 

By  R.  BOSWORTH  SMITH. 

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THE  GRACCHI,   MARIUS,  AND  SULLA.    By 

A.  H.  BEESLEY. 

"  A  concise  and  scholarly  historical  sketch,  descriptive  of 

the  decay  of  the  Roman  Republic,  and  the  events  which  paved 

the  way  for  the  advent  of  the  conquering  Caesar.     It  is  an 

excellent  account  of  the  leaders  and  legislation  ol  the  repub- 

;       lie." — Boston  Post. 

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Observer. 

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turbulent  careers  of  Marius  and  Sulla  has  yet  appeared."— 
New  York  Independent. 


EPOCHS  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY 

THE  ROM  AN  TRIUMVIRATES.  By  the  Very  Rev. 
CHARLES  MERIVALE,  D.D. 

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THE  EARLY  EMPIRE— From  the  Assassina- 
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of  Domitian.  By  Rev.  W.  WOLFE  CAPES,  M.A. 

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Work. 

THE  AGE  OF  THE  ANTONINES-The  Roman 
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W.  WOLFE  CAPES,  M.A. 

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"  We  are  glad  to  commend  it.  It  is  written  clearly,  and 
with  care  and  accuracy.  It  is  also  in  such  neat  and  compact 
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tkf  founding  of  the  City  to  the  death  of  Marcus  Aurelius 
Antoninus. 


EPOCHS    OF    MODERN 
HISTORY. 

A   SERIES   OF  BOOKS  NARRATING    THF.   HISTORY  OP 

ENGLAND  AND  EUROPE  AT  SUCCESSIVE  EPOCHS 

SUBSEQUENT  TO  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA. 

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THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES- 
England  and  Europe  in  the  Ninth  Century. 

By  the  Very  Rev.  R.  W.  CHURCH,  M.A. 

"A  remarkably  thoughtful  and  satisfactory  discussion  of 
the  causes  and  results  of  the  vast  changes  which  came  upon 
Europe  during  the  period  discussed.  The  book  is  adapted  to 
be  exceedingly  serviceable." — Chicago  Standard. 

"At  once  readable  and  valuable.  It  is  comprehensive  and 
yet  gives  the  details  of  a  period  most  interesting  to  the  student 
of  history. " — Herald  and  Presbyter. 

"It  is  written  with  a  clearness  and  vividness  of  statement 
which  make  it  the  pleasantest  reading.  It  represents  a  great 
deal  of  patient  research,  and  is  careful  and  scholarly."— 
Boston  Journal. 

THE  NORMANS  IN  EUROPE— The  Feudal 
System  and  England  under  the  Norman 
Kings.  By  Rev.  A.  H.  JOHNSON,  M.A. 

"  Its  pictures  of  the  Normans  in  their  home,  of  the  Scan- 
dinavian exodus,  the  conquest  of  England,  and  Norman 
administration,  are  full  of  vigor  and  cannot  fail  of  holding  the 
reader's  attention." — Episcopal  Register. 

"  The  style  of  the  author  is  vigorous  and  animated,  and  he 
has  given  a  valuable  sketch  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  the 
great  Northern  movement  that  has  shaped  the  history  of 
modern  Europe." — Boston  Transcript. 


EPOCHS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY 

THE   CRUSADES.     By  Rev.  G.  W.  Cox. 

"  To  be  warmly  commended  for  important  qualities.  The 
author  shows  conscientious  fidelity  to  the  materials,  and  such 
skill  in  the  use  of  them,  that,  as  a  result,  the  reader  has 
before  him  a  narrative  related  in  a  style  that  makes  it  truly 
fascinating." — Congregationalist. 

"  It  is  written  in  a  pure  and  flowing  style,  and  its  arrange- 
ment  and  treatment  of  subject  are  exceptional." — Christian 
Intelligencer. 

THE  EARLY  P  L  A  N  T  AC  EN  ETS— Their 
Relation  to  the  History  of  Europe;  The 
Foundation  and  Growth  of  Constitutional 
Government.  By  Rev.  W.  STUBBS,  M.A. 

"Nothing  could  be  desired  more  clear,  succinct,  and  well 
arranged.  All  parts  of  the  book  are  well  done.  It  may  be 
pronounced  the  best  existing  brief  history  of  the  constitution 
for  this,  its  most  important  period." — The  Nation. 

"Prof.  Stubbs  has  presented  leading  events  with  such  fair- 
ness and  wisdom  as  are  seldom  found.  He  is  remarkably 
clear  and  satisfactory." — The  Churchman. 

EDWARD    III.     By  Rev.  W.  WARBURTON,  M.A. 

"  The  author  has  done  his  work  well,  and  we  commend  it 
as  containing  in  small  space  all  essential  matter." — New  York 
Independent. 

"  Events  and  movements  are  admirably  condensed  by  the 
author,  and  presented  in  such  attractive  form  as  to  entertain 
as  well  as  instruct." — Chicago  Interior. 

THE  HOUSES  OF  LANCASTER  AND  YORK 
— The  Conquest  and  Loss  of  France.  By 

JAMES  GAIRDNER. 

"  Prepared  in  a  most  careful  and  thorough  manner,  and 
ought  to  be  read  by  every  student. " — New  York  Times. 

"It  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired  as  regards  compactness, 
accuracy,  and  excellence  of  literary  execution." — Bostoto 
Journal. 


EPOCHS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY 

THE  ERA  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  REVO- 
LUTION. By  FREDERIC  SEEBOHM.  With  Notes,  on 
Books  in  English  relating  to  the  Reformation,  by  Prof. 
GEORGE  P.  FISHER,  D.D. 

"  For  an  impartial  record  of  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
changes  about  four  hundred  years  ago,  we  cannot  commend  a 
better  manual." — Sunday- School  Times. 

"All  that  could  be  desired,  as  well  in  execution  as  in  plan. 
The  narrative  is  animated,  and  the  selection  and  grouping  of 
events  skillful  and  effective." — The  Nation. 

THE  EARLY  TUDORS— Henry  VII.,  Henry 
VIII.  By  Rev.  C.  E.  MOBERLEY,  M.A.,  late  Master  in 
Rugby  School. 

4  *  Is  concise,  scholarly,  and  accurate.  On  the  epoch  of  which 
it  treats,  we  know  of  no  work  which  equals  it." — N.  Y.  Observer. 

"  A  marvel  of  clear  and  succinct  brevity  and  good  historical 
judgment.  There  is  hardly  a  better  book  of  its  kind  to  be 
named." — New  York  Independent. 

THE  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH.  By  Rev.  M. 
CREIGHTON,  M.A. 

"  Clear  and  compact  in  style  ;  careful  in  their  facts,  and 
just  in  interpretation  of  them.  It  sheds  much  light  on  the 
progress  of  the  Reformation  and  the  origin  of  the  Popish 
reaction  during  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign  ;  also,  the  relation  of 
Jesuitism  to  the  latter." — Presbyterian  Review. 

"  A  clear,  concise,  and  just  story  of  an  era  crowded  with 
events  of  interest  and  importance." — New  Yerk  World. 

THE    THIRTY    YEARS'     WAR— 161  &- 1648. 

By  SAMUEL  RAWSQN  GARDINER. 

"  As  a  manual  it  will  prove  of  the  greatest  practical  value, 
while  to  the  general  reader  it  will  afford  a  clear  and  interesting 
account  of  events.  We  know  of  no  more  spirited  and  attractive 
recital  of  the  great  era." — Boston  Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 

"  The  thrilling  story  of  those  times  has  never  been  told  so 
vividly  or  succinctly  as  in  this  volume. " — Episcopal  Register. 


EPOCHS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION;  and  the  First 

Two  Stuarts,  16O3-166O.    By  SAMUEL  RAWSON 
GARDINER. 

"  The  narrative  is  condensed  and  brief,  yet  sufficiently  com- 
prehensive to  give  an  adequate  view  of  the  events  related." 
— Chicago  Standard. 

"Mr.  Gardiner  uses  his  researches  in  an  admirably  clear 
and  fair  way  " — Congregationalisi. 

"The  Aetcn  is  concise,  but  clear  and  perfectly  intelligible." 
—Hartford  Courant. 

THE  ENGLISH  RESTORATION  AND  LOUIS 
XIV.,  from  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  to  the 
Peace  of  Nimwegen.  By  OSMUND  AIRY,  M.A. 

"  It  is  crisply  and  admirably  written.  An  immense  amount 
of  information  is  conveyed  and  with  great  clearness,  the 
arrangement  of  the  subjects  showing  great  skill  and  a  thor- 
ough command  of  the  complicated  theme." — Boston  Saturday 
Evening  Gazette. 

"The  author  writes  with  fairness  and  discrimination,  and 
has  given  a  clear  and  intelligible  presentation  of  the  time." — 
New  York  Evangelist. 

THE  FALL  OF  THE  STUARTS;  and  Western 
Europe.  By  Rev.  EDWARD  HALE,  M.A. 

"  A  valuable  compend  to  the  general  reader  and  scholar." 
— Providence  Journal. 

"It  will  be  found  of  great  value.     It  is  a  very  graphic 

account  of  the  history  of  Europe  during  the  iyth  century, 

and  is  admirably  adapted  for  the  use  of  students." — Boston 

Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 

'  'An  admirable  handbook  for  the  student. " —  The  Churchman, 

THE  AGE  OF  ANNE.     By  EDWARD  E.  MORRIS,  M.A. 

"  The  author's  arrangement  of  the  material  is  remarkably 
clear,  his  selection  and  adjustment  of  the  facts  judicious,  his 
historical  judgment  fair  and  candid,  while  the  style  wins  by 
its  simple  elegance." — Chicago  Standard. 

"An  excellent  compendium  of  the  history  of  an  important 
period. " —  The  Watchman. 


EPOCHS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

THE  EARLY  HANOVERIANS-Europe  from 
the  Peace  of  Utrecht  to  the  Peace  of  Aix- 
fa-Chapelle.  By  EDWARD  E.  MORRIS,  M,A. 

"  Masterly,  condensed,  and  vigorous,  this  is  one  of  the 
books  which  it  is  a  delight  to  read  at  odd  moments  ;  which 
are  broad  and  suggestive,  and  at  the  same  time  condensed  in 
treatment. " —  Christian  Advocate. 

"  A  remarkably  clear  and  readable  summary  of  the  salient 
points  of  interest.  The  maps  and  tables,  no  less  than  the 
author's  style  and  treatment  of  the  subject,  entitle  the  volume 
to  the  highest  claims  of  recognition." — Boston  Daily  Ad- 
vertiser. 

FREDERICK  THE  GREAT,  AND  THE  SEVEN 
YEARS'  WAR.  By  F.  W.  LONGMAN. 

"The  subject  is  most  important,  and  the  author  has  treated 
it  in  a  way  which  is  both  scholarly  and  entertaining." — The 
Churchman. 

"Admirably  adapted  to  interest  school  boys,  and  older 
heads  will  find  it  pleasant  reading." — New  York  Tribune. 

THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION,  AND  FIRST 
EMPIRE.  By  WILLIAM  O'CONNOR  MORRIS.  With 
Appendix  by  ANDREW  D.  WHITE,  LL.D.,  ex-President  of 
Cornell  University. 

"  We  have  long  needed  a  simple  compendium  of  this  period, 
and  we  have  here  one  which  is  brief  enough  to  be  easily  run 
through  with,  and  yet  particular  enough  to  make  entertaining 
reading." — New  York  Evening  Post. 

"  The  author  has  well  accomplished  his  difficult  task  of 
sketching  in  miniature  the  grand  and  crowded  drama  of  the 
French  Revolution  and  the  Napoleonic  Empire,  showing 
himself  to  be  no  servile  compiler,  but  capable  of  judicious 
and  independent  criticism." — Springfield  Republican. 

VHE  EPOCH  OF  REFORM-1  83O-1  85O.  By 

JUSTIN  MCCARTHY. 

"  Mr.  McCarthy  knows  the  period  of  which  he  writes 
thoroughly,  and  the  result  is  a  narrative  that  is  at  once  enter- 
taining and  trustworthy." — New  York  Examiner. 

"  The  narrative  is  clear  and  comprehensive,  and  told  with 
abundant  knowledge  and  grasp  of  the  subject." — Boston 
Courier, 


IMPORTANT  HISTORICAL 
WORKS. 

CIVILIZATION  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 
Especially  in  its  Relation  to  Modern  Civil- 
ization. By  GEORGE  B.  ADAMS,  Professor  of  History  in 
Yale  University.  8vo,  $2.50. 

Professor  Adams  has  here  supplied  the  need  of  a  text-book 
for  the  study  of  Mediaeval  History  in  college  classes  at  once 
thorough  and  yet  capable  of  being  handled  in  the  time  usually 
allowed  to  it.  He  has  aimed  to  treat  the  subject  in  a  manner 
which  its  place  in  the  college  curriculum  demands,  by  present- 
ing as  clear  a  view  as  possible  of  the  underlying  and  organic 
growth  of  our  civilization,  how  its  foundations  were  laid  and  its 
chief  elements  introduced. 

Prof.  KENDRIC  C.  BABCOCK,  University  of  Minnesota: — "It 
is  one  of  the  best  books  of  the  kind  which  I  have  seen.  We 
shall  use  it  the  coming  term." 

Prof.  MARSHALL  S.  BROWN,  Michigan  University: — "I 
regard  the  work  as  a  very  valuable  treatment  of  the  great 
movements  of  history  during  the  Middle  Ages,  and  as  one 
destined  to  be  extremely  helpful  to  young  students. ' ' 

BOSTON  HERALD: — "Professor  Adams  admirably  presents 
the  leading  features  of  a  thousand  years  of  social,  political, 
and  religious  development  in  the  history  of  the  world.  It  is 
valuable  from  beginning  to  end." 

HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.     By  E. 

BENJAMIN    ANDREWS,   D.D.,  LL.D.,    President   of   Brown 
University.     With  maps.     Two  vols. ,  crown  octavo,  $4.00. 

BOSTON  ADVERTISER: — "We  doubt  if  there  has  been  so 
complete,  graphic,  and  so  thoroughly  impartial  a  history  of  our 
country  condensed  into  the  same  space.  It  must  become  a 
standard." 

ADVANCE: — "One  of  the  best  popular,  general  histories  of 
America,  if  not  the  best." 

HERALD  AND  PRESBYTER  : — "  The  very  history  that  many 
people  have  been  looking  for.  It  does  not  consist  simply  of 
minute  statements,  but  treats  of  causes  and  effects  with  philo- 
sophical grasp  and  thoughtfulness.  It  is  the  work  of  a  scholar 
and  thinker." 


IMPORTANT  HISTORICAL  WORKS. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  ROME,  from  the  Earliest 
Time  to  the  Period  of  Its  Decline.  By  Dr. 

THEODOR  MOMMSEN.  Translated  by  W.  P.  DICKSON,  D.D., 
LL.D.  A  New  Edition,  Revised  throughout,  and  embodying 
recent  additions.  Five  vols.,  with  Map.  Price  per  set,  $10.00. 

"A  work  of  the  very  highest  merit;  its  learning  is  exact 
and  profound  ;  its  narrative  full  of  genius  and  skill ;  its 
descriptions  of  men  are  admirably  vivid." — London  Times. 

"  Since  the  days  of  Niebuhr,  no  work  on  Roman  History 
has  appeared  that  combines  so  much  to  attract,  instruct,  and 
charm  the  reader.  Its  style — a  rare  quality  in  a  German 
author — is  vigorous,  spirited,  and  animated." — Dr.  SCHMITZ. 

THE  PROVINCES  OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 
From  Caesar  to  Diocletian.  By  THEODOR 
MOMMSEN.  Translated  by  WILLIAM  P.  DICKSON,  D.D., 
LL.D.  With  maps.  Two  vols.,  8vo,  $6.00. 

"  The  author  draws  the  wonderfully  rich  and  varied  picture 
of  the  conquest  and  administration  of  that  great  circle  of 
peoples  and  lands  which  formed  the  empire  of  Rome  outside 
of  Italy,  their  agriculture,  trade,  and  manufactures,  their 
artistic  and  scientific  life,  through  all  degrees  of  civilization, 
with  such  detail  and  completeness  as  could  have  come  from 
no  other  hand  than  that  of  this  great  master  of  historical  re- 
search."— Prof.  Wr.  A.  PACKARD,  Princeton  College. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  ROMAN  REPUBLIC. 

Abridged  from  the  History  by  Professor  THEODOR  MOMMSEN, 
by  C.  BRYANS  and  F.  J.  R.  HENDY.  I2mo,  $1.75. 

"  It  is  a  genuine  boon  that  the  essential  parts  of  Mommsen's 
Rome  are  thus  brought  within  the  easy  reach  of  all,  and  the 
abridgment  seems  to  me  to  preserve  unusually  well  the  glow 
and  movement  of  the  original." — Prof.  TRACY  PECK,  Yale 
University. 

"The  condensation  has  been  accurately  and  judiciously 
effected.  I  heartily  commend  the  volume  as  the  most  adequate 
embodiment,  in  a  single  volume,  of  the  main  results  of  modern 
historical  research  in  the  field  of  Roman  affairs." — Prof. 
HENRY  M.  BAIRD,  University  of  City  of  New  York. 


IMPORTANT  HISTORICAL   WORKS. 


THE  DAWN  OF  HISTORY.    An  Introduction 

to  Pre-Historic  Study.  New  and  Enlarged  Edition. 
Edited  by  C.  F.  KEARY.  I2mo,  cloth,  $1.25. 

This  work  treats  successively  of  the  earliest  traces  of  man  ; 
of  language,  its  growth,  and  the  story  it  tells  of  the  pre-his- 
toric  users  of  it ;  of  early  social  life,  the  religions,  mythologies, 
and  folk-tales,  and  of  the  history  of  writing.  The  present 
edition  contains  about  one  hundred  pages  of  new  matter, 
embodying  the  results  of  the  latest  researches. 

"A  fascinating  manual.  In  its  way,  the  work  is  a  model 
of  what  a  popular  scientific  Work  should  be." — Boston  Sat. 
Eve.  Gazette. 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  NATIONS.  By  Professor  GEORGE 
RAWLINSON,  M.A.  I2mo,  with  maps,  $1.00. 

The  first  part  of  this  book  discusses  the  antiquity  of  civiliza- 
tion in  Egypt  and  the  other  early  nations  of  the  East.  The 
second  part  is  an  examination  of  the  ethnology  of  Genesis, 
showing  its  accordance  with  the  latest  results  of  modern 
ethnographical  science. 

"A  work  of  genuine  scholarly  excellence,  and  a  useful 
offset  to  a  great  deal  of  the  superficial  current  literature  on 
such  subjects. " —  Congregationalist. 

MANUAL  OF  MYTHOLOGY.  For  the  Use 
of  Schools,  Art  Students,  and  General 
Readers.  Founded  on  the  Works  of  Pet- 
iscus,  Preller,  and  Welcker.  By  ALEXANDER 
S.  MURRAY,  Department  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities, 
British  Museum.  With  45  Plates.  Reprinted  from  the 
Second  Revised  London  Edition.  Crown  8vo,  $1.75. 

"  It  has  been  acknowledged  the  best  work  on  the  subject 
to  be  found  in  a  concise  form,  and  as  it  embodies  the  results 
of  the  latest  researches  and  discoveries  in  ancient  mythologies, 
it  is  superior  for  school  and  general  purposes  as  a  handbook 
to  any  of  the  so-called  standard  works." — Cleveland  Herald. 

"Whether  as  a  manual  for  reference,  a  text-book  for  school 
nse,  or  for  the  general  reader,  the  book  will  be  found  very 
valuable  and  interesting." — Boston  Journal. 


IMPORTANT  HISTORICAL    WORKS. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  By  Prof.  Dr. 
ERNST  CURTIUS.  Translated  by  Adolphus  William  Ward, 
M.A.,  Fellow  of  St.  Peter's  College,  Cambridge,  Prof,  of 
History  in  Owen's  College,  Manchester.  Five  volumes, 
crown  8vo.  Price  per  set,  $10.00. 

"  We  cannot  express  our  opinion  of  Dr.  Curtius'  book  bet- 
ter than  by  saying  that  it  may  be  fitly  ranked  with  Theodor 
Mommsen's  great  work. " — London  Spectator. 

"As  an  introduction  to  the  study  of  Grecian  history,  no 
previous  work  is  comparable  to  the  present  for  vivacity  and 
picturesque  beauty,  while  in  sound  learning  and  accuracy  of 
statement  it  is  not  inferior  to  the  elaborate  productions  which 
enrich  the  literature  of  the  age." — N.  Y.  Daily  Tribune. 

CAESAR:  a  Sketch.  By  JAMES  ANTHONY  FROUDE, 
M.A.  I2mo,  gilt  top,  $1.50. 

4 *  This  book  is  a  most  fascinating  biography  and  is  by  far 
the  best  account  of  Julius  Caesar  to  be  found  in  the  English 
language. " —  7^he  London  Standard. 

"  He  combines  into  a  compact  and  nervous  narrative  all 
that  is  known  of  the  persona),  social,  political,  and  military 
life  of  Caesar  ;  and  with  his  sketch  of  Caesar  includes  other 
brilliant  sketches  of  the  great  man,  his  friends,  or  rivals, 
who  contemporaneously  with  him  formed  the  principal  figures 
in  the  Roman  world/' — Harper  s  Monthly. 

CICERO.    Life  of  Marcus  Tullius  Cicero.    By 

WILLIAM  FORSYTH,  M.A.,  Q.C.  20  Engravings.  New 
Edition.  2  vols.,  crown  8vo,  in  one,  gilt  top,  $2.50. 

The  author  has  not  only  given  us  the  most  complete  and 
well-balanced  account  of  the  life  of  Cicero  ever  published  ; 
he  has  drawn  an  accurate  and  graphic  picture  of  domestic  life 
among  the  best  classes  of  the  Romans,  one  which  the  reader 
of  general  literature,  as  well  as  the  student,  may  peruse  with 
pleasure  and  profit. 

"A  scholar  without  pedantry,  and  a  Christian  without  cant, 
Mr.  Forsyth  seems  to  have  seized  with  praiseworthy  tact  the 
precise  attitude  which  it  behooves  a  biographer  to  take  when 
narrating  the  life,  the  personal  life  of  Cicero.  Mr.  Forsyth 
produces  what  we  venture  to  say  will  become  one  of  the 
classics  of  English  biographical  literature,  and  will  be  wel- 
comed by  readers  of  all  ages  and  both  sexes,  of  all  professions 
?nd  of  no  profession  at  all." — London  Quarterly. 


VALUABLE  WORKS  ON 
CLASSICAL    LITERATURE. 

THE   HISTORY   OF    ROMAN  LITERATURE. 
From  the  Earliest  Period  to  the  Death  of 

MarCUS  Aurelius.  With  Chronological  Tables,  etc., 
for  the  use  of  Students.  By  C.  T.  CRUTTWELL,  M.  A.  Crown 
8vo,  $2.50. 

Mr.  Cruttwell's  book  is  written  throughout  from  a  purely 
literary  point  of  view,  and  the  aim  has  been  to  avoid  tedious 
and  trivial  details.  The  result  is  a  volume  not  only  suited 
for  the  stuflent,  but  remarkably  readable  for  all  who  possess 
any  interest  in  the  subject. 

'*  Mr.  Cruttwell  has  given  us  a  genuine  history  of  Roman 
literature,  not  merely  a  descriptive  list  of  authors  and  their 
productions,  but  a  well  elaborated  portrayal  of  the  successive 
stages  in  the  intellectual  development  of  the  Romans  and  the 
various  forms  of  expression  which  these  took  in  literature." — 
N.  V.  Nation. 

UNIFORM    WITH   THE  ABOVE. 

A    HISTORY    OF    GREEK    LITERATURE. 
From  the  Earliest  Period  of  Demosthenes. 

By  FRANK  BYRON  JEVONS,  M.A.,  Tutor  in  the  University 
of  Durham.  Crown  8vo,  $2.50. 

The  author  goes  into  detail  with  sufficient  fullness  to  mak,e 
the  history  complete,  but  he  never  loses  sight  of  the  com- 
manding lines  along  which  the  Greek  mind  moved,  and  a 
clear  understanding  of  which  is  necessary  to  every  intelligent 
student  of  universal  literature. 

"  It  is  beyond  all  question  the  best  history  of  Greek  litera- 
ture that  has  hitherto  been  published." — London  Spectator. 


CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S   SONS, 

153-157  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 


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